{"id":567511,"date":"2026-02-12T04:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T04:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/567511\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T04:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T04:26:35","slug":"don-kelly-excited-for-marcell-ozunas-potential-impact-on-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/567511\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Kelly &#8216;Excited&#8217; For Marcell Ozuna&#8217;s Potential Impact On Pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/02\/09\/pirates-reportedly-agree-to-deal-with-silver-slugger-award-winning-hitter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">put the finishing touch<\/a> on their impressive offseason earlier this week, agreeing to a one-year, $12 million contract with veteran slugger Marcell Ozuna on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The deal is still pending a physical, but the Pirates are thrilled about potentially <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/02\/09\/how-pirates-lineup-looks-after-reported-marcell-ozuna-signing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">adding another power bat<\/a> to their lineup. Ozuna\u2019s 21 home runs last season would have led Pittsburgh\u2019s roster, and that was considered a \u201cdown\u201d year for him.<\/p>\n<p>While joining a new team can be difficult, it helps that the 35-year-old will be playing for a former teammate in Don Kelly.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly, who took over from Derek Shelton last year, was teammates with Ozuna on the Miami Marlins in 2015 and 2016. He\u2019s excited about possibly reuniting with the three-time All-Star and being able to pencil his name into the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf everything goes well, excited to add Ozuna\u2019s bat to the lineup,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/roundtable.io\/sports\/mlb\/pirates\/players\/marcell-ozuna-brings-more-than-big-bat-says-pittsburgh-pirates-manager\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelly said Tuesday<\/a> during a video conference with reporters. \u201cWhen you talk about the seasons that he\u2019s had, last year being quote unquote \u2018down year,\u2019 still 21 home runs and a bunch of RBIs and a big power bat that we can put in the middle of our order.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Kelly is looking forward to Ozuna\u2019s impact off the field, too, and the effect he can have in the clubhouse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a teammate. And the first-hand experience that I had with him in Miami and the feedback that we\u2019ve gotten from everybody in Atlanta is that he helps everybody be better,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cExcited what that is going to mean in regards to Oneil (Cruz), too, to have Marcell be in the clubhouse, to be able to help him. I think Marcell is going to help a lot of guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/02\/10\/what-does-reported-marcell-ozuna-deal-mean-for-pirates-franchise-legend\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andrew McCutchen still unsigned<\/a>, Ozuna has an opportunity to fill that leadership void and help the team\u2019s young stars.<\/p>\n<p>More Pirates: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/02\/11\/pirates-ace-paul-skenes-addresses-new-pitch-rumors-at-spring-training\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pirates Ace Paul Skenes Addresses New Pitch Rumors At Spring Training<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates put the finishing touch on their impressive offseason earlier this week, agreeing to a one-year,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,6452,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":{"0":"post-567511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-don-kelly","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-pirates","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","14":"tag-pittsburghpirates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116055768030626842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567511","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=567511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}