Marcell Ozuna's Going to Get Traded...But Where?

We break down the rumored destinations for Atlanta's designated hitter and discuss whether or not they make sense.

The Atlanta Braves’ 2025 playoff hopes are all but officially extinguished.

After winning just two of their six games after the deadline, they’re sitting 44-57 with a 10.5 game deficit in the Wild Card standings. While they’re not mathematically eliminated — FanGraphs gives them 1.6% odds — these two series losses should officially snuff out any hope of a late run.

As a result, tough decisions must be made. Last season’s best hitter, Marcell Ozuna, is this season’s most expendable. Who might want him? Let’s talk about it.

Ozuna’s a lock to get moved, but to whom?

Designated hitter Marcell Ozuna is coming to the end of his team control, having played this season on a $16 million club option. Despite underperforming and getting benched recently, he’s still viewed as a potential right-handed power bat now that he says he’s past the hip injury that hampered him earlier this season.

The question here is, to who? He doesn’t provide any sort of defensive value - the last time he played in the field was a grand total of fourteen defensive innings to open 2023¹. He’s not a good runner either, possessing a bottom-of-the-scale sprint speed and last grading positively on the basepaths in the shortened 2020 season, his first in Atlanta.

But he’s still been a positive hitter overall — capable of working walks and hitting with authority when right.

There will be suitors with open DH spots who need right-handed power.

Let’s look at some of the options and why Ozuna’d fit on their roster.

San Diego Padres

No contender has gotten worse performance out of their designated hitter spot than the San Diego Padres, 29th in baseball at -1.5 bWAR through Tuesday’s games. Padres DHs are hitting a combined .211/.278/.305 through 101 games, hitting just seven home runs and grounding into a team-high 16 double plays.

Adding Marcell Ozuna would give the team a right-handed power bat to pair with third baseman Manny Machado in the heart of the order, as well as potentially upgrade the offense in the infield as well. Jose Iglesias, 35, has mostly played a pedestrian second base, but adding Ozuna would force Luis Arraez from designated hitter to first base and Jake Cronenworth from first to second. With Iglesias hitting over 100 points lower than he did with the Mets last season (.337 to .235), the shift would upgrade the offense significantly.

Matter of fact, this makes so much sense that there’s already a reported package out there. MLB Insider Héctor Gómez, who is well connected in the Latin American player and agent community, reported on Tuesday that the Braves and Padres have had “intensifying” talks regarding Marcell Ozuna. The proposed package would be San Diego’s #18 prospect (per MLB Pipeline) RHP Francis Peña and #21 prospect RHP Ryan Bergert.

Peña, 24, is a Triple-A reliever who will be Rule 5 eligible this winter. He throws both two-seam and four-seam fastballs in the high-90s, backed up by a low-90s cutter. Bergert, 25, is a starter with a mid-90s fastball and two distinct sliders — a sweeper and a gyro. He also has a changeup, but it needs work. He's 1-0 with 2.84 ERA in 31.2 innings for San Diego this year, having both worked in relief and made some spot starts.

I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, that’s an oddly specific package to be reporting if the deal isn’t in the works. On the other hand, it’s also a lot to give up for an ailing 35-year-old DH with a lingering hip issue who hasn’t hit his weight in two months.

There’s also the issue of the denials, originating with MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, who responded to a fan’s question about the proposed deal with a wet blanket soaked in fire retardant. “According to my sources, the Braves and Padres haven't had any discussions of any kind about Marcell Ozuna” he reported, a sentiment that was backed up by FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray on a livestream.

It’s possible that Bowman (and Murray) are getting reports from sources near to one or both organizations, while Gómez is getting his report from a source close to the player or his agent. Gómez did tweet a personal thank you to Marcell Ozuna on Tuesday night, just hours after his report, for Ozuna reaching out to the nephew of his good friend and bringing him onto the field for Braves batting practice on Tuesday night. There’s clearly some sort of preexisting relationship between Gómez and Ozuna, while the Braves front office is notoriously quiet and does not leak information at all. We’ll be watching this, but there’s enough smoke where I wouldn’t be surprised if this deal was eventually consummated.

New York Mets

Braves fans aren’t going to like this, but there’s a division rival who could use Ozuna to push for the NL East title. The Mets have gotten -0.6 WAR from their designated hitters this season, predominately some combination of veteran outfielder Starling Marte and Jesse Winker. Mets DHs are hitting .238/.315/.413 on the season with only 12 home runs and, perhaps most damning, just 31 walks in 102 games..

Ozuna, by contrast, has 64 walks in his 92 games.

The fit here’s a bit tougher, although injury absences help it make sense. Winker’s currently on the injured list with back inflammation, while Marte returned from the IL just this week and was in the lineup as the designated hitter on Wednesday night. The DH spot has mostly rotated between infielder Mark Vientos and “rest days” for some of the veterans - Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, and Jeff McNeil have all taken a turn at DH in the month of July. If New York wants to go back to a platoon at DH, Marte and Ozuna could rotate through the position, or they could install Ozuna as the almost full-time designated hitter and find ways to mix in Marte in left field, where Brandon Nimmo’s made 91 starts for the Mets.

The divisional relationship makes this one tough to see, however. The last trade between the Mets and Braves came prior to the tenure of both current general managers, with New York’s Sandy Alderson acquiring Kelly Johnson for Rob Akeel Morris in June of 2016. Do we really think these two teams would make a deal now?

Boston Red Sox

This one’s been pushed by members of Braves Twitter, but I don’t see the fit. Ever since the Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, they’ve rotated players through the DH spot until activating Masataka Yoshida off the injured list just before the All-Star Break.

The Red Sox, while they would love a right-handed power bat that could launch balls over the Green Monster, are currently carrying six different outfielders on their roster at the moment - starters Jarren Duran (left field), Ceddanne Rafaela (center, although he can also play in the middle infield), Wilyer Abreu (right field), youngster Roman Anthony (who has been serving as the designated hitter a lot but can play all three positions), Rob Refsnyder (a platoon bat that can also play first base), and Yoshida. There’s just no easy options here - everyone’s hitting well, with three of those (Anthony, Duran, and Abreu) hitting in the 250s, two more hitting in the 270s (Rafaela and Refsnyder), and Yoshida having only 29 at-bats.

As much as fans have dreamed of getting Jarren Duran back in a package, I don’t see the fit, and in all likelihood, the best the Braves could reasonably hope to do is to get Vaughn Grissom and a fringe pitching prospect as a flier.

Toronto Blue Jays

Okay, this is a fun one.

The Blue Jays made splashes this offseason, signing Anthony Santander to a long-term deal and then adding veteran starter Max Scherzer, as well as making a flurry of smaller trades.

They’re currently in first place, but despite the two big additions this winter. Scherzer made one start before going on the injured list and didn’t return until late June, going just 1-0 with a 5.14 ERA in his six starts. Santander hit just .179 with six homers before going on the 60-day injured list in late May with a shoulder dislocation that will keep him out into August or even September.

That’s where Ozuna could slot in.

Toronto’s patched together the designated hitter position, getting -0.4 WAR from the combination of veteran George Springer and fill-in at-bats from first baseman Vlad Guerrero and catcher Alejandro Kirk. Springer’s been pretty good down the stretch with everyday DH at-bats, hitting .287 with a .931 OPS and thirteen homers in his 46 DH starts.

But right now, Toronto’s using the combination of Nathan Lukes (five homers in 75 games) and Myles Straw (.242 average in 83 games) in centerfield. Since Springer’s still able to play the position, having made 11 appearances there this season, why not upgrade the offense by making Marcell Ozuna the designated hitter and then platooning him with the lefty-hitting Santander when the outfielder’s back from injury in September?

I don’t know how likely this is, but there’s plenty of versatile position players that Atlanta could ask for from the Toronto farm system if they were to go this route.

Dark horse: San Francisco Giants

The Giants, who traded for Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers in mid-June to be their designated hitter, started Devers at first base for the first time in his career for Wednesday’s getaway day victory over the Braves.

And if they’re committed to leaving Devers at first base (and if he’s willing to play the position, something he didn’t want to do in Boston), it gives the Giants flexibility. San Francisco has gotten -1 WAR from their DHs this year, a combination of Devers and struggling veteran Wilmer Flores.

Do they want to add the righty bat of Marcell Ozuna into the mix? Four of the team’s nine starters are lefties, including one of their two main power hitters in Devers (Third baseman Matt Chapman is right-handed).

Here’s the issue with that, though: They just came into Atlanta and took two out of three against a struggling Atlanta offense, one that couldn’t generate runs and still see fit to play Marcell Ozuna. The Giants saw exactly one Ozuna at-bat over the series, a 9th-inning pinch-hit strikeout looking in Wednesday’s game three.

Why, when you put it that way, would they trade for Ozuna?

Why, when you consider the fact he’s playing through a hip injury and has hit just .175/.263/.299 since June 1st, would anyone trade for Marcell Ozuna?

The answer is likely a combination of “he might figure it out” and “he’s available”. This is expected to be a seller’s market - on the evening on June 23rd, ten teams are within five games of a Wild Card spot. The expanded playoffs have made everyone run buy or sell decisions down to the wire. While we know some players will be available - the Baltimore Orioles have a handful of veteran bats they’re likely selling off to the highest bidder - there won’t be chairs for everyone when the music stops. Barring exercising his 10-and-5 rights, Marcell Ozuna’s going to end up somewhere.

The question is what, if anything, does Atlanta get in return?

1. Fun fact: Atlanta’s Opening Day starter in left field was Marcell Ozuna. He started games one and three, had three total defensive chances, and then they took away his glove for good.