Breaking down potential landing spots for Marcell Ozuna

1. St. Louis Cardinals

Marcell Ozuna considered accepting the qualifying offer to stay with the Cardinals and has openly expressed a desire to remain in St. Louis. Working out a long-term deal to stay with the Cardinals is likely the outfielder’s first choice.

St. Louis just endured an up-and-down two years with Ozuna and got nowhere near the type of value required to justify the high price in prospects they gave up to acquire him. Still, he may be the team’s best hope to get some production from its outfield.

If Ozuna does not return to St. Louis in 2020, the Cardinals will likely be forced to try out some combination of Harrison Bader, Dexter Fowler and Jose Martinez in the outfield. Bader is a former top prospect, but hit just .205/.314/.366 with 12 home runs and 39 RBI in 128 games. Fowler still has two years to go on his ill-fated five-year, $82.5-million deal and has hit .233/.335/.410 in three disappointing seasons with the Cardinals. Martinez offers some more upside as a hitter, but is statuesque as a defender in right field. Utilityman Tommy Edman is another potential option for the outfield, but he has only 92 games of MLB experience and has to prove he is the real deal.

With Nicholas Castellanos likely to be massively overpaid based on his freakishly hot second half with the Chicago Cubs, Ozuna is the best free-agent outfielder in terms of bang for your buck. The Cardinals won’t be able to replace Ozuna with a better outfielder. Their most realistic free-agent target among the rest of this year’s class is third baseman Josh Donaldson, who has been on their radar for years.

Between Ozuna and Donaldson, the Cardinals would have to decide whether they are more confident that Ozuna can bounce back or Donaldson can stay healthy and productive through his age-37 season. With Donaldson likely to command over $30 million more in guaranteed salary than Ozuna, the Cardinals should take the younger player and bet on a return to form.