One piece of news Cardinal Nation had been waiting for since John Mozeliak’s after-season press conference came forward today after a seemingly long period of unneeded anticipation. Per everyone’s favorite non-St. Louis Cardinals affiliated reporter, Craig Mish, Marcell Ozuna underwent a shoulder cleanup on Tuesday (see the tweet below).
Ozuna regressed from a career-best slash line of .312/.376/.548 with 37 HR and 124 RBI in 2017 to a solid .280/.325/.433 with 23 HR and 88 RBI in 2018. The problem with those numbers was the expectation that Ozuna would anchor the lineup from the cleanup spot, and even with regression expected, that much regression was not expected.