{"id":581690,"date":"2026-02-19T20:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/581690\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:50:15","slug":"marcell-ozuna-drops-brutally-honest-paul-skenes-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/581690\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcell Ozuna drops brutally honest Paul Skenes take"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/mlb\/pittsburgh-pirates\/pirates-news-marcell-ozuna-12-million-contract-free-agency\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signing a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/mlb\/players\/b36309df\/marcell-ozuna\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marcell Ozuna<\/a> won&#8217;t have to face Cy Young winner <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/mlb\/players\/c12e0a19\/paul-skenes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paul Skenes<\/a>. However, he is getting his faceoff opportunity during <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/spring-training\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spring training<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When Ozuna steps in the box, he isn&#8217;t afraid. No matter the numbers Skenes has put up, the newest Pirates slugger just sees him as a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mearshannah_\/status\/2024538714563645927\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pitcher he has to hit<\/a> against, via Hannah Mears of SportsNet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone gets scared when Paul is on the mound. We all know he is a superstar. We&#8217;re not afraid to face him,\u201d Ozuna said. \u201cHe&#8217;s a good pitcher, but I see him good. I prefer that every time I face those superstars, I have to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ozuna\u2019s thoughts on facing Paul Skenes today in the sim game! He thinks he got in Paul\u2019s his head a little bit \ud83d\ude09<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SNPittsburgh?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@SNPittsburgh<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TML9kBmgXg\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/TML9kBmgXg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hannah Mears (@mearshannah_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mearshannah_\/status\/2024538714563645927?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 19, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While Ozuna may not be cowering, most hitters facing Skenes will be. The now two-time All-Star won his first Cy Young in 2025 after pitching to a league-leading 1.97 ERA and a 216\/42 K\/BB ratio. Over his two years with the Pirates, Skenes has put up a 1.96 ERA and a 386\/74 K\/BB ratio.<\/p>\n<p>Skenes will be the leader of what is a growing Pirates pitching staff. Barring injury, he&#8217;ll remain one of the top pitchers in the league alongside Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. Pittsburgh fans will certainly have their eyes peeled when he steps to the mound.<\/p>\n<p>As for Ozuna, he&#8217;ll be asked to bring a spark to what has been a a near silent lineup. In his final year with the Atlanta Braves, the designated hitter batted .232 with 21 home runs and 68 RBIs. His entire 13-year MLB career has produced a .269 batting average 296 home runs and 948 RBIs.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout spring training, the Skenes vs. Ozuna battle will be one to watch. When the designated hitter is in the box though, he won&#8217;t be afraid.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After signing a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Marcell Ozuna won&#8217;t have to face Cy Young winner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,78,4,877,10,776,64,4297,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-581690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-marcell-ozuna","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-paul-skenes","12":"tag-pirates","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","15":"tag-pittsburghpirates","16":"tag-spring-training"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116099274443765188","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581690","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=581690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}