While this is longer than anticipated, it's also cheaper per annum than anticipated. I know some eyebrows will raise at furnishing a thirty-year-old defensive non-factor with four years. However, I was expecting—were Ozuna to re-sign with Cobb County—something in the two-year, $50m range. It doesn't seem unreasonable to stretch that commitment out over four years, at an addition of $15m to the total outlay—especially if that flexibility was needed to add more pieces this offseason, or over the coming years.
And on Ozuna's side, I think we see a confluence of (a) other competitive, spend-ready teams allocating resources elsewhere (pitching; players with more defensive versatility), (b) long-term earnings trumping AAV concerns, and (c) comfort returning to a team with which he really seemed to gel last year.
