Cardinals outfielder Marcell Ozuna underwent a “clean up” procedure on his right shoulder, per Craig Mish of Sirius XM (Twitter link). The work was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
It had not previously been anticipated that Ozuna would require any kind of procedure, though it also does not seem to be a particularly concerning outcome at this point. The rehab schedule is not expected to limit Ozuna’s ability to report for full participation in Spring Training.
Ozuna’s ailing shoulder was a significant problem for him over the course of the 2018 season. The issue seemed to place a drag on his productivity all year long, until a late-season cortisone shot that helped spur a strong run to finish out the campaign.
In the aggregate, the Cardinals did not get the kind of output they hoped for when they acquired Ozuna, who compiled a career-best .312/.376/.548 slash with 37 home runs for the Marlins in 2017. He completed his first of two seasons of club control for the St. Louis organization with a merely above-average .280/.325/.433 line and 23 long balls. Ozuna projects to earn $13.4MM in his final season of arbitration eligibility.
There are several questions going forward. For one, there’s still some reason to wonder whether Ozuna’s big ’17 campaign was truly representative. After all, he rode a career-high .355 batting average on balls in play. The Cards obviously felt the outburst was sustainable and now believe he can get back to that level in what will only be his age-28 season. But the team will first need to see whether Ozuna’s shoulder can recover.
That’ll depend in part upon Ozuna’s own efforts at rehab, of course, and that’s a subject that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak raised recently. As MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reminds, Mozeliak offered some notably public advice for Ozuna. “If he’s diligent and puts himself in a position to prepare and have himself in a place where his shoulder is not preventing him from playing at his full potential, then I think the sky’s the limit for him,” said the club’s top baseball ops executive.
Ozuna is unbelievable talent just needs to be healthy to shine
Should be better … something was wrong.. now we know
We already knew.
I wish the best of luck to the guy. We all know he can produce big numbers if he can get healthy.
I hope this does the trick. He’s got the skills, just needs the health.
Can we offer him a qualifying offer at the end of next year, saying he puts up a decent season?
I don’t think they would because O’Neill needs to be playing every day at some point, unless they somehow find a way to get rid of Fowler.
If Ozuna has a good year, a QO will be offered. Suppose he rejects it and leaves we most likely gain a pick. If he stays great. Fowler is the impediment to O’Neill at this point
Yes they can and will offer a qualifying offer if he reaches free agency
What’s your plan with O’Neill than?
O’Neill doesn’t matter…why would the cardinals let Ozuna walk without any compensation? If you offer Ozuna a qualifying offer he will not accept it and then you get a draft pick….if he accepts you get a good player for another year…. But he of course will not accept it because he will be looking for a big contract….it would make no sense not to offer him the qualifying offer.
O’Neil has not put up Ozuna’s career numbers nor shown Ozuna’s potential. He will not even be an after thought when the team decides what to do with Ozuna.
This is great news for the Cardinals. They obviously found what they hope was the problem and corrected it, so this just increases the chances for a healthy shoulder come spring training
I’m really confused by how batting lines are described around here. Yesterday, Smoak was described as having “a strong performance at the plate” in 2018 with a .242/.350/..475
but in this article Ozuna disappointed with a “merely above-average line of .280/.325/.433”. Just see this often on this site and it makes me wonder.
An OPS over .800 is strong. An OPS of .750, especially for a guy who seemed poised to follow up a huge breakout 2017 campaign, is not – it’s merely above average. In today’s world of advanced metrics, batting average is often considered the least important among the slash stats – or at the very least, it is to all the writers and most readers of this particular site.
I’m curious for the Cardinals fans out there – how do you view your OF in an ideal world over the next year or 2? As an outside observer my thought is Ozuna and Bader need to be playing every day, while O’Neill slowly takes over for Fowler unless they can find a way to dump him (like they did with Pham last year). Are Bader or O’Neill viewed as “for real” by the fans who see them all the time? There’s certainly a lot of talent there, but mixing and matching week to week doesn’t seem like it’s worked well in recent years. The glut of options has also forced them to ditch some really good talent that on the surface seems to have worked out for their new teams (Piscotty, Grichuk, and to a lesser extent Pham).
Most of the outfield talk revolves around replacing Fowler with Harper.
I think the perceptions of Bader and O’Neill are fascinating. They both run out ground balls, they both catch the ball while runnig into walls and diving all over the field. For some reason Bader (who has elite speed) just looks like he hustles more than O’Neill (who is very fast himself) so I think most fans love Bader and most are kind of ho-hum on O’Neill while hoping for more consistency. That’s just my read on other Cardinal fan’s thoughts.
I think the ho-hum for O’Neill is due to his 7 BB/57K in 130 AB in 2018.
Bader also strikes out too much but at worst, he brings gold glove level defense and a platoon option against lefties, who he absolutely murders (.934 OPS in ’17-18).
I believe for the most part fans love Bader…his defense brings back memories of Edmaonds…Just waiting to see how he handles his bat for a full season…I personally like Ozuna and think he is a great player…I hope this surgery fixes things because he was awesome in the second half last year…….I don’t know why fans think Harper is going to even consider the cardinals….sorry but he will sign with a big market team that will pay him more than the Cardinals want to…Do the cardinals need a Harper? yes…but he will not sign here…it will be another average year for the cardinals….the young pitching is still developing and the right field situation needs to get figured out…..a platoon of Fowler and Oneill is what i am thinking will happen…Fowler trying to prove he has something left and oneill proving he is a legit MLB player
Pham had a huge second half after he came back from his broken foot. He is easily the best of the OF the Cardinals have moved in the past few seasons.
Thanks for the feedback! Always glad to see the comments section bring some knowledge instead of trolling, hate, or insane trade theories.
I had no idea about Pham’s second half, but you’re absolutely right – OPS over 1.000 is elite over that span. I hope he gets a chance to shine over a full season with Tampa next year.
I can’t envision any scenario where Harper becomes a Cardinal. I guess stranger things have happened – I don’t know many people that had Cano making 200 mil in Seattle, for instance – but money notwithstanding it seems like Harper would prefer a brighter spotlight than St Louis. I guess we’ll all see soon enough…
And great point about Bader and O’Neill’s perceptions, too. I admit, I’ve only ever watched highlights and box scores for either, so I didn’t really know the latter had speed of his own so I was of the exact same school of thought you described. I’ll have to make a point to keep an eye on both next year.
As usual, I’m afraid Cardinals fans are in for the same gloom and doom of the past 4-5 off seasons as long as John Mozeliak is calling the choices.
I dealt Charlie Morton for Ozuna, straight up, in my dynasty league last July…Get Well, soon Marcell.