Things couldn’t be going a whole lot worse for the Atlanta Braves right now.
For the first time since their 0-7 start, the Braves are back to seven games below .500. They got there by blowing a six-run ninth-inning lead on Thursday, which allowed the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team ahead of them in the playoff standings, to secure a sweep.
With 101 games left, the Braves certainly aren’t dead yet. But the possibility that they’ll sell off some rentals at the trade deadline is beginning to percolate, and they have one big-time rental to potentially unload.
Designated hitter Marcell Ozuna has a .413 on-base percentage this season despite playing through a hip issue. He’s been one of the top sluggers in the sport over the last three years and now that his five-year, $81 million contract is coming to an end, his future is up in the air.
On Friday, Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller discussed the probability of Ozuna being traded if the Braves wind up holding a “fire sale” ahead of the Jul. 31 trade deadline.
“In Marcell Ozuna, Atlanta could introduce one heck of an unexpected variable into this year’s deadline proceedings. He hasn’t been slugging at nearly the same level as he did the previous two seasons, but he still has an .875 OPS thanks to an NL-leading 49 walks, a respectable .274 batting average and 10 home runs,” Miller wrote.
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“The fact that he has only played 14 innings in the field since the end of 2022 is a bit of a wrinkle that effectively eliminates any team that already has a full-time DH. But an Ozuna rental would spark quite the bidding war all the same.”
The National League is tough to envision for Ozuna trades because the Los Angeles Dodgers have Shohei Ohtani DHing, and the Braves would be unlikely to deal him to their division rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies or New York Mets.
In fairness, the Braves won’t want to trade Ozuna anywhere, because it means this season was a huge failure. Unfortunately, things are already trending in that direction.
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