Granted, Marcell Ozuna is hitting 57 points higher than Henry Davis. But that only puts him at .195 — and Ozuna isn’t Paul Skenes’ personal designated hitter, so his place on the Pirates roster isn’t guaranteed.
It shouldn’t be, anyway.
This guy is making Rowdy Tellez look like Aaron Judge. How much longer can the Pirates afford to wait on him?
Even Tellez eventually came around. I’m not so sure Ozuna will. This isn’t getting better. He has now gone seven consecutive games without an extra-base hit, and his .303 slugging percentage is among the worst of any designated hitter in the sport.
Ozuna’s horrific season hasn’t hurt the Pirates that much because their offense has been potent. But what happens when certain players inevitably cool off? We’re already seeing what happens when certain players get injured and better competition arrives in the form of the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ozuna’s paltry production is likely to become way more noticeable, although fans took notice again Tuesday: He was roundly booed in the 12-3 loss to the Dodgers.
Things have been so bad that Ozuna can’t even challenge pitches correctly. He has unbelievably challenged 14 of them and been right only six times (compare that to the team’s best hitter, Brandon Lowe, who has seen fit to challenge only one pitch all season).
Could somebody please tell Ozuna to stop, especially early in games?
It happened again Tuesday, when he challenged a borderline pitch with an 0-1 count and the Pirates leading 2-1 with nobody on in the fourth inning.
Ozuna and every single one of his teammates should be under strict orders to NEVER tap their helmet in that kind of situation. It’s ludicrous. Has manager Don Kelly even laid out the do’s and don’ts for challenges? His team ranks among the worst in the majors — offensively and defensively — in challenging pitches.
Anyway, Ozuna was wrong again.
“He’s been terrible at that,” Greg Brown said on the radio broadcast. “And you’d think eventually he’d quit trying.”
Ozuna can’t run, either, and while that didn’t matter when he was mashing baseballs all over the place for other teams, it sure stands out now.
He followed his ill-advised challenge by miraculously getting thrown out on what would have been a base hit for maybe 98% of players who have ever lived, including Bartolo Colon. Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts went to his knees to backhand a ball in left field, jumped up and threw a two-hopper to first. It somehow beat Ozuna by a step.
Television analyst John Wehner couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Oh my,” Wehner said. “You won’t see this very often — a shortstop going that far to his right, leaving his feet from the outfield grass, throwing a runner out.”
Bob Walk expressed a similar thought on the radio call.
“Yeah, there’s not many guys in the league that are going to get thrown out on that,” Walk said.
Brown: “We’ve talked about this before: It’s not that he’s not hustling. He just …”
Walk: “Yeah, he’s not fast.”
Brown: “That’s an understatement.”
Ozuna absolutely gives his best effort. He has also by all accounts been an outstanding teammate through his struggles. But we’re not engaged in the nice-guy Olympics here. The object is to win baseball games.
And as we head toward the middle of June, with the Pirates teetering, it appears as though GM Ben Cherington flushed $12 million down the toilet when he bought low on the 35-year-old Ozuna, who was coming off a disturbingly down year in Atlanta.
This would be even worse if Andrew McCutchen had gone to Texas and lit it up — but McCutchen slumped badly and was designated for assignment a few weeks ago. He was batting .191, so pretty much in the Ozuna range.
Is Ozuna looking at a similar fate? Not from the way Cherington spoke Sunday. He said Ozuna — who has been periodically benched — still has plenty of “runway.”
“We are going to give it time because we see that hot streak for him,” Cherington said. “We want to be the beneficiaries of that, when that happens, and are confident that will happen.”
That makes one of us.