While it has crossed his mind, Marcell Ozuna is wisely not letting it consume him. In his years since joining the Atlanta Braves ahead of the 2020 MLB season, he has seen fellow All-Stars walk in free agency if they are on the wrong side of 30. Freddie Freeman was the first; then it was Dansby Swanson. Just this past offseason, Max Fried took his epic mustache to the New York Yankees.

So when Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution caught up with Ozuna during Braves spring training in North Port, Florida, the slugger let it be known how he feels entering a contract season with Atlanta. Ozuna has seen the highest of highs with the Braves, as well as the lowest of lows. It serves him to keep an even keel heading into the final season his contract with the franchise.

Hitting is such a mental part of the game, so why would Ozuna let anything else be a distraction?

“I don’t think on that. I just come in and give you my best, as usual, and then play the game, just have fun.”

Rather than putting pressure on himself, Ozuna would rather “just go”, which is a breath of fresh air.

“Yeah, because you put pressure on yourself. I don’t put pressure. I just go.”

As opposed to thinking about things outside of his control, Ozuna is focusing on staying healthy.

“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.”

To tie a bow on the contract situation, “business is business”, but why worth about those things now?

“Business is business. 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.”

Atlanta exercised its team option on Ozuna for the 2025 MLB season. He will be making $16 million.

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Marcell Ozuna seems to understand his Atlanta Braves tenure may end

For as well as Ozuna has thrived in his role at times for the Braves, he is not getting any younger and remains a major defensive liability. As long as he handles the bat well, he will have a role on this team as the designated hitter … up to a certain price point. While I agree that having one player man this role is probably the best and most likely outcome, the DH role is how you can spell everyday players.

While manager Brian Snitker does not regularly tinker with his lineup very much during the regular season, most of his best players are not getting any younger. Matt Olson is in his 30s, and many of the team’s young corps is staring that benchmark in the face as well. What I am getting at is using the designated hitter role more liberally in future seasons can help position players stay fresher for even longer.

Given that Snitker is not going to be managing for very much longer, we may see a new style of roster construction and lineup implementation for whoever eventually takes over for him. That could be internal candidates like Matt Tiuasosopo or Walt Weiss, or somebody else entirely. All I know is the Snitker era of Braves baseball is not going to continue into the next decade. So what happens next?

Well, I think Atlanta may get as much as it can out of Ozuna’s hitting prowess before letting him walk in free agency. $16 million is not that much, but Ozuna may command more than that on the open market. For as long as guys like Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II are still in their athletic primes, Atlanta may look to adding a more cost-effective DH stop-gap to replace Ozuna.

In the meantime, let’s just try to enjoy the Big Bear, as well as Snitbear, for as long as we have Ozuna.