Marcell Ozuna’s historic pace for Braves proves Alex Anthopoulos right again

The Atlanta Braves are once again keeping pace in the NL East. At 14-5, Brian Snitker’s team has two games of cushion against the Philadelphia Phillies, who are starting to figure things out at the plate. What Philadelphia does probably won’t matter too much to the Braves, though. At least not in the regular season. Even with multiple key injuries stacked up, Atlanta is the best team in the division and the National League by a noticeable margin.

One reason for the Braves’ early success — perhaps the primary reason — is Marcell Ozuna’s MVP-level output. It is far too early to start MVP discourse, and Ozuna’s inability to impact winning in the field will probably keep him out of the race when the conversation ramps up. In terms of raw offensive production, however, the 33-year-old from Santo Domingo is doing legitimately historic things.

Marcell Ozuna on historic pace for Braves early in season

Ozuna is slashing .338/.400/.688 with eight home runs and 24 RBI, both of which lead the NL. He has 26 hits in 77 AB, drawing eight walks and only striking out 14 times. Ozuna has been dominant in the realm of advanced metrics, too. In fact, he’s on track to break one very impressive regular season record.

Through 19 games, Ozuna’s xwOBA (Expected Weighted On-base Average) — which is “formulated using exit velocity, launch angle and, on certain types of batted balls, [and] Sprint Speed,” per MLB — is .508, in the 100th percentile according to Baseball Savant. Ozuna passed Kansas City Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. for the best mark in baseball on Friday.

The single-season record for xwOBA is Aaron Judge’s .463 in 2022. So, right now, Ozuna is more than on pace to break the record. He’s on pace to break it by a lot.

For what it’s worth, Ozuna is also in the 100th percentile for expected batting average (.384) and expected slugging percentage (.784). He is legitimately the best hitter in baseball right now. Maybe it will hold, maybe it won’t, but last season no longer feels like a peak on the roller coaster. Inconsistency was a concern with Ozuna going into the 2023 campaign, but he appears to have locked in and elevated his game to a new level entirely. He’s putting together back-to-back elite seasons at the plate.

Not only is Ozuna connecting on big swings and sending baseballs to the upper deck. He’s battling, making contact, and drawing walks. He’s still going to swing and miss a fair amount, but that is the nature of Ozuna’s approach. What matters is that he’s not striking out (16.5 percent K rate, in the 76th percentile).

Atlanta has dealt with key injuries to Ozzie Albies and Sean Murphy, not to mention the Spencer Strider news. To still be the MLB’s best power team, tied for No. 1 in collective RBI, is a testament to how deep and explosive the Braves’ offense is. Ozuna is leading the charge right now.

This article was originally published on fansided.com as Marcell Ozuna’s historic pace for Braves proves Alex Anthopoulos right again.