It doesn't appear the Phillies, or anyone, will be landing a slugger from a divisional rival.
Earlier this off-season, Cristian Moreno of ESPN Deportes reported that the Phillies 'had a lot of interest' in Miami Marlins' outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who reportedly had fallen out of favor with owner Jeffrey Loria.
Ozuna seemed like a lock to be traded at the beginning of the off-season, but a trade never seemed to get very serious with any team. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald says that the Marlins did propose trades involving Ozuna to two teams, neither of which were the Phillies.
Before signing Wei Yin Chen, the Marlins made specific proposals to two teams that coveted center fielder Marcell Ozuna (Cincinnati and Texas) and decided internally that they would trade him only if those teams met their exact asking price, including starting pitching.
My guess would be that the Phillies did check in on Ozuna early in the off-season, but the Marlins' asking price was probably too steep for them to meet. Presumably, they wouldn't have been willing to give up one of their top young starting pitchers, among others, in a trade for Ozuna. It's hard to know if that decision was correct without knowing what pitcher the Marlins were interested in, if it even got as far as exchanging names.
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The Marlins' baseball people probably weren't as interested in trading Ozuna as Loria was, which led to what was probably a high asking-price for the 25 year-old. Hitting coach Barry Bonds and new manager Don Mattingly reportedly also pushed for the Marlins to keep Ozuna, under the belief that they can hone his talent into him being a '30/30 guy'. Whether that proves to be the case or not, it appears the Phillies will be among 29 teams in the league that Ozuna won't be traded to this off-season.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
