NORTH PORT, Fla. — We know about the expected returns from injury by star right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and strikeout maestro Spencer Strider.
Less clear, though, has been the status of one of the breakout stars of the Braves’ 2024 season. We are referring to the plush and furry stuffed animal known as Snitbear.
Gifted last season to designated hitter Marcell Ozuna through manager Brian Snitker by a married couple who were longtime Braves fans, Snitbear became a good-luck charm and ever-present fan favorite. He did not lack for camera time on game broadcasts, perched in the dugout close by Ozuna, garbed in a variety of outfits and surrounded by assorted snacks.
Has Snitbear earned a spot on the 2025 roster? We asked the stuffed animal’s guardian Saturday after his day’s work in a spring-training game at CoolToday Park was complete.
“Yes,” Ozuna informed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Snitbear did not make the trip to North Port but has remained in his locker at Truist Park.
Said the bearded DH, “He’s in hibernation.”
Ozuna is himself emerging from his winter’s rest. Against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, he smoked a double off the outfield wall. It was his second extra-base hit of the spring. Sunday, he ripped a single to left against the Boston Red Sox.
For whatever it’s worth, he finished Sunday’s game hitting .250 with one home run in 20 at-bats this spring.
“I feel good,” he said, sitting at a picnic table outside the Braves clubhouse. “I’m getting better every single time I step in the box. Day by day, ready to do some damage and ready for the season to start.”
For reasons beyond his essential role in the team’s pursuit of an eighth consecutive postseason berth and the franchise’s fifth World Series title, the season carries weight for Ozuna. Now 34 and going into his sixth season in a Braves uniform (and 13th in the majors overall), Ozuna is on the last year of his contract, a club option that will pay him $16 million.
Ozuna’s future with the team may hinge on what happens over the course of the season. It’s a drama that has played out previously with now-former Braves stars such as Freddie Freeman, Dansby Swanson and Max Fried.
“I don’t think on that,” Ozuna said, referring to his pending free agency. “I just come in and give you my best, as usual, and then play the game, just have fun.”
Some might take motivation from the chance to prove themselves going into their contract year. Ozuna does not.
“Yeah, because you put pressure on yourself,” he said. “I don’t put pressure. I just go.”
A repeat of 2024 would put pressure on the Braves to keep him. Last year, at an age when his production should be sliding, he had probably the second-best full season of his career, hitting .302 with 39 home runs and 104 RBIs. He was top 10 in the majors in those three categories as well as on-base percentage (.378), slugging percentage (.546) and OPS (.924). Only two other players could make the same claim — the two league MVPs, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge. Ozuna was a deserving fourth in National League MVP voting.
He said he didn’t have numerical goals for the coming season.
“The only goals I have are stay healthy for the whole season and then everything I can do to come in every day and have fun and play the game,” Ozuna said.
His value to the franchise is difficult to question. Ozuna holds the fourth-longest active tenure on the roster, following Ozzie Albies (2017), Acuña (2018) and Austin Riley (2019). The stay has been clouded by two separate legal incidents that he has atoned for. But in three of the five seasons, including the past two, he has destroyed baseballs. He hit a combined 79 home runs in 2023-24, a total exceeded by only five players in the major leagues (teammate Matt Olson is one of them, with 83).
He has earned the distinction of probably being the best designated hitter in National League history. His 104 home runs as a DH with the Braves are the most that any NL DH has hit in the history such a role has existed. (It began with interleague play in American League parks 1997-2019, full time in 2020, back to road interleague games in 2021 and full time since 2022.)
“Oh, really?” Ozuna said when informed of his status as the all-time NL DH HR king. “That’s nice.”
Beyond that, he is a central figure in the clubhouse, respected and appreciated.
“Every time I’m coming to the field, I’m going to bring energy,” he said. “Happy, smile and nothing bad. It’s what I have to be. I don’t want to be that guy, grumpy and getting mad for no reason.”
All reasons to keep him. But the same held true for the likes of Freeman, Swanson, Fried and others.
The calculus of this situation is different in that Ozuna is older than those three when they were allowed to leave in free agency. The fact that he presumably is past his physical prime diminishes the reason to sign him, but it also could mean that he would command less as a free agent and thus would be easier for the Braves to re-sign.
The onus is on him to show that he can continue to be an elite power hitter at 34 years old. Since 2010, around the start of the post-steroids era, 11 players have hit 35 home runs in their age-33 season, according to Stathead. The number drops to five for age 34 and two for 35.
He would like to stay with the Braves past 2025. He clearly fits with the team. He spoke of playing four or five more years or possibly more.
However, “business is business,” he said. “I don’t want to think like, ‘What about if they sign me or not?’ I just want to play and give my best to my teammates.”
For now, that’s an appropriate place to leave it.
