Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos Shocks Fans: Marcell Ozuna’s Release Was Never an Option!

While the Braves offence has struggled as a whole, Marcell Ozuna has been the consistent presence in the middle of the lineup, as everyone expected when the season began. The Big Bear leads the league in home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage, OPS, and OPS+. A designated hitter has never won an MVP award, but if anyone deserves to be considered after the first two months of the season, it’s Ozuna, who has been perhaps the Braves’ best offensive player since May of last year.

That’s when things started to get better. Ozuna began last season with a.100 batting average after repeated arrests, and his release seemed certain. Fans were counting down the days until he no longer wore the Braves uniform, and high-profile MLB sources even claimed that his release was imminent. However, Alex Anthopoulos, who recently had a lengthy interview with Chris Domino and Nick Cellini of 680 The Fan, claims that was never even considered.

“I remember being on your show last year early, and it was, ‘When is Marcell Ozuna going to get released, right?'” Anthopoulos commented. “And it was becoming louder. I was receiving phone calls. Why is he not being released? Madison Bumgarner has been discharged. Aaron Hicks had been released by the Yankees, and everyone was saying, ‘He’s next. He’s next.'”
“There was never any talk. Everyone says, ‘He was a week away, two weeks away.’ I’m not sure who they were talking to, but it was not the team’s general manager. We never discussed releasing him. I believe the argument back then would have been, if we were to be critical, why is Snit playing him? He is not playing well. Why does he receive at-bats? Snit deserves great credit for running him out there despite the boos and everything else.
It’s strange to hear Alex Anthopolous talk about Marcell Ozuna in this light, because it was only natural for everyone to wonder why Ozuna was on the team a little more than a year ago. He’d been a nuisance off the pitch, having been arrested for both domestic abuse and driving under the influence, and he was equally poor on the pitch. All indications pointed to it being a sunk investment; but, his clubhouse presence continued to give him additional time, and Brian Snitker never gave up hope.