Braves’ Marcell Ozuna has a chance for a historic season

Marcell Ozuna’s 180 over the last 12 months is unlike anything I’ve seen.

Not only has his on-field performance improved from unplayable to one of the finest offensive players in baseball, but his off-field reputation has also improved, thanks in large part to the words of his teammates, who have had his back despite everything that has happened.

Some Braves supporters will never be happy with Marcell Ozuna being on the team, which is just great. He committed blunders that he will have to live with for the rest of his life. I believe in second chances, and I’m hoping that things continue to go well in that sense, as they have on the field. Because right now, there might not be a better offensive player in baseball.

Marcell Ozuna had a.086 batting average by the end of April. He’d almost lost his starting job, and the entire park was booing him on his home field. Then a vacation to Miami altered everything. The Big Bear had six hits in a three-game series versus the Fish, including three home runs. He regained his starting position, and the rest is history.

Since that series, Ozuna has hit over.300, with 45 home runs and 120 RBIs. If you do the math, he has a few of weeks left to smash five home runs, and he’ll have 50 bombs in a calendar year and at least 125 RBI.

Of course, if Marcell Ozuna hits five more home runs by the end of the month, he will not have a 50-home run season, but it is still one of the most remarkable periods we’ve seen in baseball in the previous decade. Since 2014, only four players have hit 50 or more home runs in a season: Aaron Judge (twice), Pete Alonso, Giancarlo Stanton, and Matt Olson.

Ozuna’s turnaround is even more astonishing because he hasn’t always been such a powerful hitter. Even before the issue, he had only hit more than 30 home runs once in his career, with 37 in 2017 with the Marlins. Last season was the first time he hit 40 home runs in a single season, and I expected him to regress to the mean.

But perhaps this is simply who the Big Bear is today. Ozuna enters Tuesday night’s game against the Astros on a 14-game hit streak, during which he’s hitting.397 with seven home runs and a 1.225 OPS. This is no longer simply a heated stretch. It might be time to start talking about Marcell Ozuna as one of the game’s top offensive players.