US (Washington Insider Magazine) – The 2023 Major League Baseball season came to an end last November with the Texas Rangers winning the title. Throughout the campaign, there were 105 Dominican players in the Majors, plus another 33 who made their debut. And this Friday Line Up Internacional awarded Marcell Ozuna as the best Quisqueyan of the recently completed harvest.
With 368 in the voting, the Atlanta Braves outfielder won the Juan Marichal award, which accredits him as the best Dominican player of the Major League season. Ozuna beat Juan Soto by just 10 points and Julio Rodríguez was five points behind.
Ozuna hit 40 home runs in the regular season, along with 100 RBIs, 145 hits and finished with a .274 average. The 32-year-old outfielder received the award from Juan Marichal and David Ortiz, two legends of Dominican baseball.
Marcell Ozuna /Getty Images
“This is priceless. I feel proud of the season I had and competing against all those greats, Rafael Devers, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., who are young people who are coming up. It is a pride to try to compete with them,” Ozuna began his words of gratitude during the ceremony.
“This award is one of the most important, because of the name it bears, that of our immortal Dominican, an icon who helped many players open the doors to reach the Major Leagues,” said the Braves slugger.
Marichal himself also said a few words after presenting the award to Ozuna. “It has been a well-deserved career this year at the Major League level and we hope that you continue doing this work every year so that you can join ‘Big Papi’ (David Ortiz) and the four of us who are already in the Hall of Fame,” commented the former pitcher.
Marichal, who was the first Dominican to be inducted into the Major League Hall of Fame, presented David Ortiz with the Cooperstown Mention. For entering the Hall of Fame in 2022 and becoming the fourth Dominican to do so.
The Juan Marichal award was created by Line Up Internacional in 2021 to reward the best Dominican player in the Major Leagues. The first edition was won by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the previous one by Sandy Alcántara.
This article is originally published on eldiariony.com
