MARLINS TRADE AWAY ANOTHER SLUGGER
Two-thirds of last season’s outfield has now been traded
This time it’s All-Star Ozuna, to the St. Louis Cardinals.
LAKE BUENA VISTA — Marcell Ozuna is just about your newest former Marlin.
Miami agreed to trade Ozuna — their Gold Glove, Silver Slugger left fielder — to the St. Louis Cardinals for four prospects on Wednesday, a source told the Sun Sentinel. He is the third All-Star to say so long to South Florida in six days.
The deal was pending a physical and expected to be announced today. The Cardinals are reportedly sending four prospects to the Marlins: right-handed pitcher Sandy Alcantara, outfielder Magneuris Sierra, right-hander Zac Gallen and left-hander Daniel Castano.
Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill declined to discuss the trade Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t comment on rumors,” he said.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny praised Ozuna, while acknowledging the transaction was
not official.
“Good player,” Matheny said. “I think our organization did a great job of being very aggressive, even kind of maybe outside our norm.
“Ozuna is one of those names that you have to have great respect [for], especially as much we see him, not just through the season, but in spring training [at the teams’ shared complex] we’ve see him quite a bit.”
This past season, Ozuna put together a strong offensive campaign for the entire year for the first time in his career. He set personal bests in most major offensive categories, including average (.312), OBP (.376), slugging percentage (.548), home runs (37) and RBI (124). He received a few down-ballot NL MVP votes, finishing tied for 15th.
But Ozuna is scheduled to hit free agency after the 2019 season. Projected to make $11 million via arbitration in 2018 after his breakout year, Ozuna was an expendable — but valuable — piece for the Marlins as they begin their rebuild under CEO Derek Jeter.
For the Marlins, this is another step in that offseason roster deconstruction. It started with Dee Gordon, continued with Giancarlo Stanton, now includes Ozuna and could send more Marlins packing in the coming days and weeks.
They have already traded two-thirds of what was baseball’s most productive outfield in 2017. It’s possible the third player, Christian Yelich, could also be moved.
For the Cardinals, Ozuna is a consolation prize. They chased Stanton — and had a deal in place with the Marlins for him — but were rebuffed by the NL MVP, who refused to waive his notrade clause to head to St. Louis.
Those negotiations served as groundwork for this deal.
“As you have those conversations, you do start opening up doors,” Matheny said. “What else could that look like if it [a Stanton trade] does not come through? Which it didn’t.”
The Cardinals, loaded with pitching prospects in particular, were in a prime position to beat out the reported half-dozen or so other teams who were interested in Ozuna.
And unlike with the trades of Stanton and Gordon, in which the primary benefit to the Marlins was shedding more than $300 million in their combined future salaries, the assets here were the prospects.
Sierra is the Cardinals’ No. 6 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, while Alcantara is No. 9. They both made their major league debuts in 2017. Gallen is ranked 13th. Castano was not ranked among the club’s top 30 minor leaguers.
Alcantara, 22, throws hard (touching 100 mph), has a high ceiling (front-ofthe-rotation starter) and is ready or close to ready for the majors (debuting this past September). In eight games as a reliever, Alcantara allowed six runs (four earned) in 8 1⁄3 innings, striking out 10 and walking six. Young for Double A, he had a 4.31 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and .262 opponents’ batting average. He struck out 106 batters in 125 1⁄3 innings.
Combined with Jorge Guzman, a 21-year-old righty whose fastball sits at 100 mph, the Marlins in recent days have acquired two of the hardest-throwing minor league pitchers in all of baseball.
Sierra, 21, slashed .317/ .359/.317 in 22 big league games. He spent most of the year in Double A, hitting .269/.313/.352 with 17 steals in 81 games. He is highly regarded defensively and has above-average speed.
Gallen, 22, went to the Cardinals in the third round of the 2016 draft, a fast-rising college arm who played in High A, Double A and Triple A this past season. In 26 starts in all, he had a 2.93 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. His fastball sits in the low 90s and is more of a commandand-control pitcher, as opposed to the flamethrowing Alcantara.
Castano, 23, split 2017 between a rookie-level league and short-season A. He had a 3.82 ERA and 1.26 WHIP.