Marcell Ozuna

All reasonable onlookers expected regression from Ozuna's .312, 37-homer outburst in 2017, but they still wanted better than .280 and 23 long balls. Let's see if he can find some middle ground this season. Playing through a nagging shoulder injury, which he addressed with an offseason surgery, he slashed his strikeouts and maintained similar levels of exit velocity and hard hits. He once again hit too many ground balls (47.1%), but he couldn't overcome it this time. The 28-year-old doesn't even need a major bounce-back to deliver value, as he could post a monster RBI tally batting behind Matt Carpenter and Paul Goldschmidt in St. Louis.

Marcell Ozuna rehabbing shoulder in the DR

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak plans to visit Marcell Ozuna to check on his rehab from shoulder surgery.

Fantasy Impact

Ozuna opted to return home to the Dominican Republic to rehab his surgery rather than stay at the Cardinals' training facility in Florida. Mozeliak will be in the DR anyways and wants to see how Ozuna is doing. Ozuna has assured Mozeliak he will be ready for the season. The 28-year-old had a somewhat disappointing year in 2018 but he was also playing hurt. There's reason to think he can bounce back this year if he's fully healthy.