{"id":562702,"date":"2026-02-09T18:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/562702\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T18:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:08:26","slug":"pirates-sign-free-agent-slugger-marcell-ozuna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/562702\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates sign free agent slugger Marcell Ozuna"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"ELRRTGPZT5DCRE2TC52T76KFJU\">The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed free agent outfielder\/designated hitter Marcell Ozuna to a one-year, $12 million contract, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"AITYVIZU6ZBJNNAUEWOCGLU4PM\">Ozuna\u2019s deal with the Pirates will pay him $10.5 million this year, with a $1.5 million buyout and a $16 million mutual option for the 2027 season, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/2020860829004931172\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"Z72FZPMU2BF5FKKDUZ3FQ4XLTE\">Ozuna, 35, spent the past six seasons with the Atlanta Braves. The righty slugger hit 148 home runs in 683 games for the Braves, including a career-high 40 home runs in 2023 and 39 home runs in 2024, when he earned his third career All-Star selection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"BXT7QOTNDRFOBC2LQG6RMKKT5Y\">Last season, Ozuna hit .232 with 21 home runs, 68 RBI and a .756 OPS in 145 games for Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"VCGRX4U5RVBBNN3NKNKJ2BZN5A\">Ozuna previously played two seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2018-19 and five seasons with the Miami Marlins from 2013-17, earning All-Star selections in his final two seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"VKKBLS46CNDQBGDNMQQFQ2EJ6Q\">For his 13-year MLB career, Ozuna has a .269 batting average, 296 home runs, 948 RBI and an .806 OPS in 1,614 games played.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"SVIS7IZNHFBSVMVIHERRXM2CYM\">Ozuna is the latest addition to the Pirates\u2019 lineup this offseason, joining Brandon Lowe, who was acquired via trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, and Ryan O\u2019Hearn, who signed a <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com?id=126006X1587346&amp;xs=1&amp;xcust=zmentz%7C&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com%2Fnews%2Fryan-o-hearn-pirates-contract&amp;product_category=Sporting+Goods%3EAthletics%3EBaseball+%26+Softball\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">two-year, $29 million<\/a> contract in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed free agent outfielder\/designated hitter Marcell Ozuna to a one-year, $12 million contract, according&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[2514,5,4,10,776,64,4297,2515],"class_list":{"0":"post-562702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-2514","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-pirates","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","14":"tag-pittsburghpirates","15":"tag-wspix"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116042013412992635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}