11 times the Cardinals allowed fear to drive poor decision-making under John Mozeliak

Fear-based decision #5 - The Marcell Ozuna trade

A lot of you probably remember this, but for those of you who don't, the Cardinals had interest in all three Miami Marlins outfielders during the offseason following the 2017 season, but they ended up with their least favorite of the trio in Marcell Ozuna.

First, the Cardinals heavily pursued slugger Giancarlo Stanton, and they actually agreed to a trade for the former NL MVP before he vetoed the trade and was shipped to the New York Yankees instead.

Yes, the Cardinals actually agreed to acquire Stanton and the remaining 10 years, $295 million left on his contract to make him their superstar middle-of-the-order bat for years to come. And when they struck out on Stanton, their eyes were set on Marlins' center fielder Christian Yelich next.

The Marlins were in no rush to move Yelich though, playing hardball with the Cardinals and not wanting to move him unless it was for a hefty price. Instead of waiting out the Marlins like the Milwaukee Brewers did, the Cardinals got anxious and turned their attention to their third preference, Ozuna.

Sending a very similar (if not the exact same) package to Miami for Ozuna that they agreed to for Stanton, the Cardinals brought Ozuna to St. Louis, under the awareness of his shoulder issues that would plague him as a Cardinal, in hopes that he could help rejuvenate their offense in a major way.

The season before being shipped to St. Louis, Ozuna slashed .312/.376/.548 with 37 home runs and 124 RBI in 148 games for the Marlins, which is why the Cardinals and other teams were interested in his services. Still, the Cardinals favored Yelich and Stanton, and while they dodged a bullet missing out on the latter, the former went on the win an MVP with Milwaukee and would have been an excellent fit for St. Louis.

Ozuna lasted just two years with the Cardinals before leaving in free agency, posting a .262/.327/.451 slash line while averaging 26 home runs and 89 RBI each season. He wasn't a bad hitter by any means, but only posting a 107 OPS+ as a Cardinal was a major disappointment, and they ended up giving up a future Cy Young award winner and another Cy Young contender in Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen in that disaster of a trade.

Had they waited out Yelich, they would have gotten an MVP performance out of him in year one and an MVP runner-up campaign in 2019, and considering they made the NLCS that second year, they may have been able to make a trip to the World Series had they had Yelich in hand. Since being acquired by the Brewers, Yelich has slashed .283/.383/.491 with a 136 OPS+, far better than what they got from Ozuna.

Instead, the Cardinals were once again disappointed with their outfield results in 2017 and 2018, and faced with an opportunity to end those woes, they decided to avoid the aggressive approach at the time it would have actually paid off.