The Giants faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS in 2012, and again in 2014, beating them on both occasions to eventually win the last two of their epic trio of World Series championships. Although neither team reached the playoffs last year, the Giants and Cardinals once again find themselves in competition, only this time it’s for a player that could help each get back to the postseason in 2018.
On Monday morning, Sirius XM’s Craig Mish wrapped up his appearance on Murph & Mac by giving his take on Miami’s other prized outfielders that the Giants and Cardinals could compete for once the Giancarlo Stanton sweepstakes reportedly comes to an end in the next few days.
“Yes, I think they’ll move one of the two. Not both,” Mish said. “I think the Cardinals would have a leg up there, they’d have the better players to offer the Marlins in return, but I wouldn’t discount the Giants either because they’ve scouted both teams. So you’d think both those teams are in the mix.”
While Ozuna holds two All-Star nominations over his outfield counterpart, the 25-year-old Yelich is two years younger than Ozuna and won’t be a free agent until 2022. Both are owners of a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards and in the last two years, both Yelich and Ozuna received votes for MVP.
Following his first All-Star season in 2016, Ozuna broke out to a .312 batting average with a career-high 37 home runs last season. He finished 15th behind Stanton in the MVP voting and Baseball Reference projects him to hit another 26 homers next season.
Meanwhile, Yelich consistently put up strong numbers since debuting in 2013. In five seasons with the Marlins, Yelich batted .290 with 59 home runs, his best coming in 2016 when he batted .298 with 21 home runs and finished 19th for the MVP.
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 11:45 for Mish on Ozuna and Yelich.