The Atlanta Braves might have thought it couldn’t get any worse after Thursday, but they did.
A day after blowing a six-run lead in the top of the ninth inning, the Braves opened their series against the San Francisco Giants with a walk-off loss in the bottom of the 10th inning on a Pierce Johnson wild pitch that Sean Murphy probably could have kept in front of him.
Suddenly, the Braves’ season is on the brink. They’ve lost 12 of their last 15 games, including five in a row, and sit a season-worst eight games under .500 at 27-35. That puts them eight games back of a wild-card spot.
At some point, Atlanta will have to commit to being sellers if the losing continues. And one Braves writer is calling for the team to part ways with a crucial piece of the lineup.
On Saturday, FanSided’s Eric Cole urged the Braves to trade designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, who is headed to free agency this winter, though he conceded that they probably “won’t” do so.
“Ozuna has come back from multiple off the field controversies and a dreadful couple of years to morph back into one of the Braves’ best hitters. However, Ozuna is also in the last year of contract and is probably going to be hampered through the end of the season as he is currently playing through a tear in his hip,” Cole wrote.
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“Still, where is the harm in trading Ozuna during a lost season and then circling back to him when he hits free agency? …Moving Ozuna to save some cash and getting a couple prospects back wouldn’t necessarily mean goodbye forever.”
The 34-year-old Ozuna has fought through the hip pain to produce a .413 on-base percentage, tops on the team, and a 145 OPS+. Any contender without a full-time DH blocking the way would love to have him on their roster.
Is it really all that unlikely that Ozuna gets moved? What if the Braves are still eight games out of a playoff spot by the trade deadline? Eleven? How bad do things have to get to finally wave the white flag?
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