The Pittsburgh Pirates completed the final piece of the puzzle in an aggressive offseason designed to add some pop to baseball’s least productive offense by agreeing Monday morning to a free-agent deal with Marcell Ozuna.
Ozuna will sign a one-year contract for $12 million, pending the passing of a physical, a source confirmed to TribLive. It pushes the Pirates’ payroll close to $100 million for the first time since 2016. The contract includes a $10.5 million base with a mutual club option for $16 million in 2027 and $1.5 million buyout.
The 35-year-old designated hitter, a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner, is a right- handed power hitter who has 296 home runs and 948 RBIs in 13 seasons with Miami, St. Louis and Atlanta.
Ozuna batted .232/.355/.400 with 19 doubles, 21 home runs and 68 RBIs, along with 144 strikeouts against 94 walks, in 145 games last season for the Braves. He’s one year removed from a 39-homer, 104-RBI campaign in 2024, when he batted .302/.378/.546 with a 154 OPS+, was an All-Star and finished fourth in National League MVP voting.
Ozuna ranked in the 98th percentile in walk rate (15.9%) last season, per Statcast, with a 22.3% chase rate. He’s spent more games as a DH (554) than he has in left field (546), where Ozuna won a Gold Glove in 2017, and has a career .271/.356/.504 slash line with 101 doubles, 125 homers and 344 RBIs as a DH.
The 2017 season was the most complete season of his career. Ozuna batted .312/.376/.548 for a 149 OPS+, had 30 doubles, 37 homers and 124 RBIs for a 5.7 WAR for the Marlins. He was named an All-Star, won Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards and finished 15th in MVP voting.
Ozuna brings power to a lineup that added All-Star sluggers in second baseman Brandon Lowe from Tampa Bay in a three-team trade and free-agent first baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn in a two-year, $29 million contract to two-time All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds and center fielder Oneil Cruz, who has back-to-back 20-homer seasons.
It also likely spells the end of five-time All-Star and 2013 NL MVP Andrew McCutchen’s three-year tenure as DH. The 39-year-old McCutchen ranks in the top 10 in franchise history in most major offensive categories but also is a right-handed hitter whose slugging percentage and OPS were last among qualified designated hitters last season.
