Former Cardinals slugger is showing the risk of a full-time DH with his new team

Marcell Ozuna showed some signs of life against the St. Louis Cardinals recently, but to say it's been a rough season for the former Redbirds slugger would be an understatement.

The 35-year-old slugger is hitting just .187/.280/.310, good for a 67 wRC+ that is among the 10 worst figures in the league. He's also only notched nine total extra-base hits in 175 plate appearances, which is a problem when he's striking out in over a quarter of his trips to the plate.

Things have gotten so bad that Ben Cherington, the Pittsburgh Pirates' general manager, had to publicly defend his acquisition of Ozuna and the team's continued insistence on starting him at designated hitter, despite the fact that he isn't hitting.

Just in case anyone needed a reminder about the dangers of building an inflexible roster.

Cardinals' lineup flexibility is proving to be a differece-maker in 2026

The Cardinals have rotated four players in at DH this year: Jordan Walker (one game), Yohel Pozo (five games), Nolan Gorman (13 games) and Iván Herrera (31 games). The Pirates have actually gotten six players in the lineup at that spot, but no one has logged more than four games of action there besides Ozuna.

There was a point in which is appeared that a reunion with Ozuna -- even as a potential trade chip if things went sideways -- would make sense for the Cardinals. It's clear now that such a set-up would have hamstrung Oli Marmol's flexibility while building a lineup, which has been crucial to the Redbirds' far-better-than-expected 28-21 start.

It's also a good thing that the Cardinals wound up passing on signing him, seeing as he's now actually hurting the Pirates (-0.6 fWAR) more than he's helping them. Considering the two teams are separated by only a few games in the standings and represent two of the better Wild Card hopefuls in the entire National League, any advantage St. Louis can get is a good one.

To really drive this point home: the Pirates have received a 66 wRC+ and -0.8 fWAR out of their DH spot in 2026. Meanwhile, the Cardinals sit at -0.4 fWAR and an 82 wRC+. Both are subpar (especially for such an offense-driven position), but that's still a wide gap.

As long as the Cardinals can keep getting notable contributions from other spots in their lineup -- or limit the playing time Nolan Gorman gets at DH, since he's been so much better at the plate when he's playing third base -- their offense will be in a good spot. Unless Ozuna turns things around, the Pirates may not be able to say the same.

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