The southpaw tallied a strong 2.53 FIP at Double-A last season, but due to COVID-19, he made his MLB debut this season before ever throwing a pitch at the Triple-A level. After a somewhat surprising assignment to AAA at the beginning of the season, Alacantara was called up in late June. On the other hand, the Marlins have seen all four prospects acquired in the Ozuna trade reach the major leagues. Yes, it was a very small sample size out of the bullpen for sure BUT, that gave us a little taste of what he could do. In December 2017, Miami acquired right-handers Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen, plus left-hander Daniel Castano and outfielder Magneuris Sierra for Ozuna, who is now with the Braves. For a team with little to take from 2018, this was true progress. Even though the Cardinals traded from positions of depth in the minor leagues, this was still a good haul as they received some of the top prospects in the Cardinals system. The St. Louis Cardinals announced today (Thursday, December 14) that they have completed a five-player trade with the Miami Marlins, acquiring All-Star outfielder Marcell Ozuna in exchange for RHP Sandy Alcantara, OF Magneuris Sierra, RHP Zac Gallen and LHP Daniel Castano. 6-keys: media/spln/mlb/reg/free/stories, at Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Additionally, Sandy Alcantara has established himself in the rotation, posting 2.5 fWAR in the last two seasons, including 2.3 fWAR in 2019 after throwing 197 1⁄3 innings last year. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Due to this it is difficult to view this trade as a failure for the Cardinals. And Daniel Castano stalled a bit upon reaching high-A, posting an ERA of 4.74. As I said earlier, St. Louis Cardinals fans got so excited for Ozuna when he came from Miami, neon sleeve and all. Ozuna seemed to overplay his hand coming off two solid, though, unspectacular, seasons with the Cardinals after being acquired from the Miami Marlins in a trade. We bring sports news that matters to your inbox, to help you stay informed and get a winning edge. This wouldn’t be a rental trade. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. With that in mind, let’s recap the 2018 performances of both Ozuna and the prospects sent back to Miami. Alcantara seems to be becoming more mature in his approach to pitching. Ozuna, who just turned 29, will earn $18 million in 2020, Atlanta announced. © 2004-2020 CBS Interactive. The St. Louis Cardinals may have stunted his development by bring him up from A ball to the majors too quickly, but they ended up getting his value up and sending him off. - A Hunt and Peck. For Marcell Ozuna, the Cardinals sent four prospects to Miami. Trading for Ozuna makes him a cornerstone of the team for the next couple of years. In 2018, he pitched the entire year at the Marlins’ AAA affiliate. Ozuna’s 2016, quite frankly, came out of nowhere. Ozuna … The Brewers likewise sent four prospects to Miami for Christian Yelich, but on the whole, it was a seemingly stronger crop than what St. Louis had sent. Finally, Magneuris Sierra, the sole bat acquired by the Marlins in the trade, struggled in his first 156 plate appearances with the Marlins in 2018 as he posted -1.5 fWAR and batted below the Mendoza line. Magneuris Sierra was literally the worst hitter in baseball last year among players with at least 150 plate appearances, and the third least valuable player overall out of 392. Join the Redbird Rants team! But it would be unreasonable for me to think that Mozeliak was unreasonable for wanting Marcell Ozuna for a minimal prospect bounty (as an aside, I’ve noticed a large correlation between people who want to constantly accuse the Cardinals of being cheap and people who are mad that the Cardinals opted for Ozuna, the costlier of the two by projected average annual value, rather than the guy who would’ve cost the team more talented players). Another point that is somewhat overlooked that makes it easier for Ozuna to perform in 2019 is the Cardinals’ addition of Paul Goldschmidt. And every word of speculation about the Yelich trade is based on a huge assumption–that the lack of a Lewis Brinson in a trade could be overcome. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc. site: media | arena: mlb | pageType: stories |