Quote:
Originally Posted by jd1020
The thing with Ozuna, though, is that is he really playing worse or just not out of his mind? He had one insane year with the Marlins but before that he was a guy that was on the verge of being sent back to the minors his entire career. If you look at Ozuna this year compared to his first 4 seasons with the Marlins and its not far off from his best in those years.
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He made the all-star team in 2016 as well before an injury and a slump in the 2nd half.
He really started to turn the corner when he came back up in 2015 after the Marlins dicked around with his service time following what appeared to be a significant breakout in 2014 (had a 4+ win season as a 23 yr old in his first full year). He was a former top 100 prospect with a strong pedigree and a longer track record of strong play than of being an underperformer.
A reasonable expectation was somewhere between what he was in 2016 and 2017. Maybe 25 bombs and a .290/.350/.500 kind of triple slash couldn't be seen as overly optimistic as he continued through his prime.
Take a look at what David Peralta's doing this season. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to have expected that kind of strong season from Ozuna. A 4-5 win season shouldn't have been out of reach at all.
He's just not getting the job done; putting him in distinguished company with a fair number of other players that have come to St. Louis and gotten worse or left St. Louis and gotten better.
This coaching staff just isn't good.