Braves secure power bat with Ozuna signing

ATLANTA - Free agent outfielder Marcell Ozuna and the Atlanta Braves reached an $18 million, one-year deal Tuesday that puts him on the team he helped beat in the playoffs last October. Ozuna hit .429 with two home runs for the St. Louis Cardinals in their five-game win over the Braves in the NL Division Series. 

The 29-year-old Ozuna hit .241 with 29 home runs and 89 RBIs last season. His low batting average was something on an oddity because he ranked among the major league leaders in the highest percentage of hard-hit balls, according to Statcast.

"We really feel strongly about Ozuna's bat and we think there's a lot more upside to what he showed last year and we just thought he'd be a really good fit for us and the deal made sense for both sides," said Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos.

Anthopoulos elected not to discuss the team's inability to sign prized free agent third baseman Josh Donaldson, who chose to play for the Twins last week. Anthopoulos said Ozuna projects as the power bat they'd hoped for, and will likely hit cleanup for the Braves, providing protection for Freddie Freeman- a role occupied by Donaldson for much of the 2019 season.

" We stayed in contact with Ozuna the entire offseason," said Anthopoulos. "Obviously we were working on some other things and things really picked up, I'd say, over the weekend." 

Ozuna is a two-time All-Star who spent his first five seasons with the Marlins, then was traded and played two years in St. Louis. His signing leaves infielder-outfielder Nicholas Castellanos as the last remaining major free agent with spring training set to start in about three weeks. The two-time NL East champion Braves have been busy this offseason. On Monday, they signed former AL Cy Young Award winner and longtime Seattle ace Felix Hernandez to a minor league with an invite to big league spring training.