Braves Marcell Ozuna Waiver Candidate: The Waiver Rumor That Took Over Baseball Twitter
Here’s something kind of funny about baseball. A rumor can travel faster than any pitch. And sometimes, that rumor becomes bigger than the actual facts — until the two get completely tangled up.
That’s exactly what happened with Marcell Ozuna and the Atlanta Braves during the 2025 season. The phrase “Braves Marcell Ozuna waiver candidate” spread everywhere — fan forums, sports radio, social media threads, big-time baseball analysis sites. People were convinced something dramatic was about to happen. Many thought Atlanta was quietly pushing a veteran slugger out the door.
The truth? Ozuna was never placed on waivers. Not once.
But to understand why the rumor felt so believable — and why it actually mattered — you need to understand Ozuna’s full story, how MLB waivers actually work, and what was really going on inside the Braves organization in 2025. So let’s go through all of it, piece by piece.
Key Facts
| Topic | Details |
| Full Name | Marcell Ozuna |
| Nickname | The Big Bear |
| Born | November 12, 1990 — Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
| Position | Designated Hitter (DH) |
| 2025 Salary | $16 million (club option exercised by Atlanta) |
| 2025 Final Stats | ~21 HR, .248 AVG, .755 OPS, 1.2 WAR |
| 2024 Stats (Peak) | 40 HR, .300 AVG, .925 OPS — one of NL’s best hitters |
| Games Played (2025) | 145 |
| Key Injury (2025) | Bat movement and speed are limited by a right hip problem. |
| Was He Waived? | No — contract expired naturally at end of 2025 |
| Post-Braves Destination | Pittsburgh Pirates (signed Feb 2026) |
| 2026 Contract | ~$10–12 million, 1 year with mutual option |
| Career Honors | 3x All-Star, Silver Slugger Award |
| Notable Off-Field Events | 2021 DV arrest (20-game suspension), 2022 DUI arrest |
| Who Named Him Waiver Candidate? | Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller, Aug 2025 |
Who Is Marcell Ozuna, Really?
Before any of the 2025 drama, Ozuna was genuinely one of the best hitters in baseball.
He grew up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He signed with the Florida Marlins at 16 and worked his way up through the minor leagues with the kind of quiet patience that only young players with real talent can maintain. He made his MLB debut with the Miami Marlins in 2013, and by 2017 he’d become a legitimate star — hitting 37 home runs, driving in 124 runs, and finishing as runner-up in the NL MVP race.
After a stint with the St. Louis Cardinals, he landed in Atlanta. And in 2023 and 2024, he became something close to unstoppable. Back-to-back years of 39 and 40 home runs. A .300 average. An OPS above .920. He wasn’t just good. He was one of maybe five or six hitters in all of baseball that pitchers genuinely feared.
That’s the version of Marcell Ozuna that existed in everyone’s mind going into 2025. That context matters a lot for understanding why his decline felt so jarring.
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What Happened in 2025
If you watched Ozuna in April 2025, you probably weren’t worried yet.
He started the season looking like himself. The power was there. The approach at the plate was patient. Fans and analysts figured this was going to be another strong year. Then June arrived, and the wheels started wobbling.
Reports surfaced that Ozuna had been dealing with a right hip issue. That’s a rough injury for a power hitter. The engine of your swing is your hips. When that engine isn’t running right, your bat speed drops, your rotation through the zone gets choppy, and suddenly those pitches you used to destroy start getting past you.
From June through July, Ozuna hit around .181 during a stretch that was hard to ignore. His exit velocity — how hard he was hitting the ball — dropped to 89.2 mph. That might sound technical, but basically it means the ball wasn’t jumping off his bat the way it used to. His strikeout rate climbed to 24.8%. His WAR (a single number that tries to capture a player’s total value) settled at 1.2 for the season. For context, in 2024 he’d been among the most valuable hitters in the sport.
He did have an August where he looked more like himself again. Some home runs. Some big hits. But the consistency wasn’t there. And the Braves weren’t playing well as a team either — they fell well out of wild-card contention by midsummer.
That combination — a high-salary veteran having a down year on a struggling team — is exactly the recipe that gets baseball Twitter cooking.
How Waivers Actually Work (This Part Matters)
Here’s where a lot of people got confused, and honestly it’s not their fault. MLB’s waiver system isn’t intuitive.
When a team places a player on “outright waivers,” every other team gets a 47-hour window to put in a claim for that player. If multiple teams want him, the team with the worst record in the league gets priority. That’s called reverse standings order. The claiming team then takes on the player’s full remaining salary — every dollar.
Here’s the part most fans miss completely: putting a player on waivers doesn’t automatically save the original team money. If nobody claims him, he can go to the minor leagues or be released — but the luxury tax calculation? That salary still counts for the team that placed him on waivers. The financial relief only arrives if another team actually claims him and takes that contract off your books.
So for a player like Ozuna making $16 million — a number that pushes a team closer to the luxury tax line — you’d need another team to willingly absorb that. And that only happens if they believe he’s worth $16 million going forward. With his 2025 numbers, that wasn’t a slam-dunk assumption.
This is why the Braves never actually pulled the trigger. The financial math didn’t add up to a clear win.
Why the Rumor Felt So Real
Just because something didn’t happen doesn’t mean people were wrong to wonder.
In August 2025, Bleacher Report analyst Kerry Miller published a piece naming Ozuna — along with pitcher Raisel Iglesias — as prime waiver wire candidates ahead of the August 31 roster deadline. That piece spread everywhere. And when someone with credibility in the baseball media puts a specific name out there like that, people take it seriously.
The Braves were also in a position that usually signals movement. They were 12 games out of a wild-card spot. Teams in that spot stop thinking about this year and start thinking about next year. Payroll cleanup becomes a priority. Every veteran contract gets a fresh look. And $16 million for a designated hitter who posted a 1.2 WAR is a contract that absolutely would have been reviewed.
There’s also the human side of this. Ozuna had a complicated relationship with a portion of the Atlanta fanbase because of his off-field history. A 2021 domestic violence arrest led to a 20-game suspension under MLB’s joint policy. A 2022 DUI arrest added more turbulence. When those unresolved feelings sit alongside a down year on a struggling team, the emotional push toward wanting a clean break can make a rumor feel like reality.
But beat writers who covered the Braves day-to-day kept saying the same thing: no front office signals, no credible sourcing, no concrete movement. It was always speculation in the air — not a plan on paper.
What Atlanta Was Actually Thinking
Alex Anthopoulos runs the Braves the way a really good chess player moves pieces — quietly, without tipping his hand, always thinking several moves ahead.
His calculation on Ozuna in 2025 was probably pretty simple. Yes, $16 million for that level of production is uncomfortable. But actually waiving him doesn’t guarantee financial relief — you need someone to claim him. And even a reduced version of Ozuna was still a credible middle-of-the-order presence who kept the lineup from falling apart completely.
The alternative — cutting him loose and absorbing the loss, or using the DH spot as a rotating rest station — offered less offensive certainty than just letting the contract play out. Atlanta had a full season of decline to deal with. Why add roster chaos on top of that?
They also had to think about how this looked to other veterans. Teams that develop a reputation for dumping players the moment things get hard have trouble attracting the next generation of free agents. Anthopoulos is known for being honest with players. Pulling the plug on Ozuna during his worst stretch would have sent a message to the entire clubhouse.
So Atlanta waited. Ozuna played his 145 games. The season ended. His contract expired. He entered free agency as a free man.
The Pittsburgh Chapter
In February 2026, Ozuna signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The deal was reported at around $10 to $12 million for one year, with a mutual option for 2027. That’s a meaningful pay cut from his $16 million in Atlanta — but for Ozuna, it’s a second chance at showing what he still has.
Pittsburgh makes sense for this kind of move. They finished last in the NL in home runs during the 2025 season. They have a young core of developing players who can benefit from a veteran presence in the clubhouse. And they’re willing to take a swing on a player with upside who just needs to stay healthy.
If his hip heals properly in the offseason and he comes into 2026 with his bat speed restored, Ozuna at $12 million is a bargain. If the decline continues, Pittsburgh parts ways cleanly when the year ends. It’s a calculated bet for both sides.
There’s something genuinely hopeful about that. Not every baseball story ends when the rumor stops. Sometimes it just moves to a different city.
What the Numbers Tell Us Honestly
Here’s where we have to be fair to the real picture.
Ozuna’s 2025 season was below his personal standard, but he wasn’t historically bad. His wRC+ of 114 means he was still about 14% better than the average MLB hitter. His walk rate hit a career high at 15.9%. Even in a down year, he was drawing pitches and showing plate discipline that many hitters never develop.
The things that worried people — the exit velocity drop, the strikeout rate increase, the 21 home runs instead of 39 — are real concerns for a 34-year-old designated hitter. Power tends to age faster than anything else in baseball. Once bat speed starts declining, it rarely comes all the way back.
But there’s a difference between “declining” and “done.” Ozuna at his floor is still a useful big-league hitter. At his ceiling — if the hip is right and the timing comes back — he can still hurt pitchers badly.
The Misconceptions Worth Clearing Up
A few things got repeated as facts that weren’t actually true.
Misconception 1: The Braves were planning to waive Ozuna. They weren’t. Beat reporters confirmed no internal conversations produced a concrete plan.
Misconception 2: Being a “waiver candidate” means you’re being waived. It doesn’t. Analysts use that phrase to describe players whose situations make a move possible — not guaranteed. It’s a prediction about what could happen, not a report of what is happening.
Misconception 3: Ozuna’s 2025 season was a total collapse. Not exactly. He was below his peak, yes. But a 114 wRC+ over 145 games is still a functional, productive season for a major league lineup.
Misconception 4: The waiver process would have saved Atlanta money. As explained above — only if someone claimed him. Nobody was rushing to take on $16 million for his 2025 version.
What This Story Actually Says About Baseball
There’s a bigger picture here that’s worth sitting with for a second.
This whole story reveals something real about how modern baseball works. A player can go from MVP-level production in one year to a “waiver candidate” headline the next. The business moves fast. Social media moves faster. And public perception, once it shifts, is really hard to reverse.
Ozuna’s story also shows how off-field history follows a player long after the original events. His 2021 and 2022 legal troubles shaped how a portion of fans felt about him in 2025 — not just his batting average. That’s a human truth about reputation and forgiveness that extends well beyond sports.
And finally, it’s a reminder that rumors and transactions are very different things. In the age of instant sports, speculation gets as much attention as the facts. Sometimes more.
Final Words
Marcell Ozuna spent several years being one of the most feared hitters in the National League. He had a hard 2025. People wondered whether Atlanta would let him go mid-season. They didn’t. His contract ended naturally, and he found a new home in Pittsburgh.
That’s the full story. Not quite as dramatic as the headlines suggested. But in baseball, the truth often lives somewhere quieter than the noise.
Watch what Ozuna does in Pittsburgh. He’s 35 now, and this next chapter will tell us more about what he has left than any rumor ever could.
FAQs
1. Was Marcell Ozuna actually placed on waivers by the Atlanta Braves?
No. The Braves never officially placed Ozuna on waivers during the 2025 season. He played all 145 games, his contract expired naturally, and he entered free agency when the season ended.
2. What does “waiver candidate” even mean?
It’s a label analysts use when a player’s situation — salary, age, performance, team position in standings — makes a move logically possible. It describes speculation, not an announced decision.
3. Who first called Ozuna a waiver candidate?
Bleacher Report analyst Kerry Miller named Ozuna, along with pitcher Raisel Iglesias, as waiver wire candidates ahead of the August 31 roster deadline in 2025. That piece spread widely and fueled the broader conversation.
4. Why did the Braves exercise Ozuna’s $16 million option if they were thinking about moving him?
They exercised the option before 2025 began, when his 2024 production — 40 home runs, .300 average — made him one of the best DHs in baseball. The decline came during the season, not before it.
5. Would waiving Ozuna have saved Atlanta money?
Not automatically. Waiving him only removes the salary from Atlanta’s books if another team claims him and takes the full contract. If nobody claimed him, the Braves would still carry the luxury tax hit. That’s part of why they never pulled the trigger.
6. How did his hip injury affect his performance?
The right hip issue hurt his bat speed and rotational mechanics — the foundations of power hitting. It contributed to a drop in exit velocity to around 89.2 mph and a stretch where he hit .181 from June through July.
7. Did Ozuna have any good stretches in 2025 despite the decline?
Yes. He had a noticeably stronger August, showing flashes of his old power and reminding people that healthy Ozuna is still a dangerous hitter. The inconsistency is what made the season so confusing to evaluate.
8. What were Ozuna’s best seasons with Atlanta?
His 2023 and 2024 seasons were exceptional. In those two years combined, he hit nearly 80 home runs, maintained a batting average around .300, and posted OPS numbers above .920 — putting him in the conversation with the best hitters in baseball.
9. Where did Ozuna sign after leaving Atlanta?
He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in February 2026 on a one-year deal worth between $10 and $12 million, with a mutual option for the 2027 season.
10. Why did the Braves let him walk instead of re-signing him?
Atlanta was entering a roster reset. The focus shifted to younger, cost-controlled players with more positional flexibility. A 35-year-old DH-only player coming off a down year with injury concerns didn’t fit the new direction.
11. Is Ozuna’s off-field history relevant to the waiver discussion?
Honestly, yes — from a public perception standpoint. His 2021 domestic violence arrest and 2022 DUI arrest complicated his relationship with part of the fanbase. When performance declined, those feelings made waiver speculation feel more emotionally satisfying to some fans, even if the actual business logic didn’t support it.
12. How does the MLB waiver claiming process actually work?
When a team waives a player, all 29 other teams get 47 hours to file a claim. If multiple teams claim the same player, the one with the worst record gets priority. The claiming team takes over the full remaining salary. If nobody claims him, the team can assign him to the minors or release him outright.
13. Was Ozuna’s 2025 season truly terrible, or just below his peak?
More the latter. His wRC+ of 114 means he was still above league average as a hitter. His walk rate hit a career high. The decline was real and meaningful for someone with his contract, but calling it a complete failure would be an overstatement.
14. Did the Braves explore trading Ozuna before the deadline?
Reports suggest Atlanta looked at options. But no serious trade discussions developed, and no partners emerged willing to absorb his salary without meaningful compensation flowing back the other way.
15. What should we watch for with Ozuna in Pittsburgh?
His hip health in spring training is the first thing. If he comes into 2026 with full mobility and bat speed restored, a bounce-back season is genuinely possible. Pittsburgh needs right-handed power badly, and even a healthy 75% version of peak Ozuna would be a significant upgrade for their lineup.
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