Re-creating Marcell Ozuna in the Aggregate

The Atlanta Braves need to replace the MVP finalist version of Marcell Ozuna. Can they do it without signing a full time designated hitter?

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‘The Big Bear’ Marcell Ozuna was arguably the most valuable player on the 2024 Atlanta Braves. It’s a bold argument, sure - Chris Sale won a Cy Young award and all - but there is an argument here.

Sale clearly beat Ozuna in the WAR conversation, coming in at 6.4 fWAR to Ozuna’s 4.7 fWAR. But when you look at their respective sides of the ball, to borrow a football term, a picture emerges.

For Sale, he led a dominant pitching staff that was the best in the league (as measured by ERA), coming in top three in both rotation and bullpen ERA and which led the league with 23.6 fWAR. Offensively, however, the picture was much different. Atlanta’s bats compiled an 18.7 fWAR, good for just 17th in the league, on account of the numerous injuries suffered by the team’s everyday stars in their lineup.

The crux of the argument is this: Remove Chris Sale from the 2024 Atlanta Braves and maybe they’re no longer the best pitching staff in baseball, but top ten still feels within reach.¹ Remove Marcell Ozuna from the offense, however, and the loss of his 4.7 fWAR drops Atlanta from 17th to 23rd, just slightly above the then-Oakland Athletics, who lost 93 games.

And now Ozuna is a free agent.

Looking past his injury-impacted 2025, how do the Braves replace his two seasons of MVP-caliber production? Let’s talk about it.

What the Braves lost in Ozuna

Honestly, an offensive insurance policy. And we saw how costly not having that policy was in 2025.

In the 2023 & 2024 seasons, Ozuna hit a combined .289/.364/.552 with 79 homers and 204 runs batted in. His 148 OPS+/wRC+ led the team, and there were several nights in 2024 when he was the entire offense, carrying Atlanta to a low-scoring win behind a dominant starter performance, a lockdown bullpen outing, and a “big fly” or two from The Big Bear.

But as we discussed yesterday, while dealing with a hip injury, Ozuna became a part-time player for the Braves last year, hitting just .232/.355/.400 with 21 homers and 68 RBI. Not having that floor of RBI and run production (Ozuna went from 180 runs in 23/24 to just 61 last year) meant that a compromised rotation didn’t have the run support needed to turn several of Atlanta’s close losses into wins. The Braves finished 2025 with an atrocious 21-35 record (.375 winning percentage) in one-run games.

From a purely statistical perspective, Atlanta needs to replace this production.

But there’s more than just the stats. Ozuna, despite his well-documented off-the-field concerns early in his Braves tenure, was a leader in the clubhouse. Several Braves players of different backgrounds and situations, ranging from centerfielder Michael Harris II to starter Chris Sale, have gone on the record to discuss either Ozuna helping to spur a breakthrough or providing a well-timed pep talk at the perfect time to cut a slump short. He’s frequently seen on broadcasts talking to pitchers and position players alike in the dugout, using the insights gleaned from a long career to help improve his teammates.

It’s clear that replacing Ozuna is no simple task. Let’s discuss the options.

Option 1: Sign a full-time DH

The easiest solution here is to…just bring back Ozuna. Assuming his hip injury is fully healed, and there’s been a lack of reporting this winter on whether or not he’s either had surgery to correct it or rehabbed it enough to return to play in spring training, bringing Ozuna back would be the simplest way to backfill that production and leadership.

His familiarity with the organization - he’s spent five seasons in Atlanta - as well as the support they showed him during his off-the-field issues, which included a 2021 suspension of 20 games for a violation of the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy, would ostensibly make this simple. While the team would still need to work out the money, you at least know he’d take their call.

If Atlanta wanted to swing higher, they could look to the other full-time designated hitter on the market, Kyle Schwarber. The former Philadelphia Philly and MVP runner-up led the entire National League with 56 homers and all of baseball with 132 RBI last season. He’s also known for his clubhouse leadership and demeanor, with several younger Phillies talking to Fox Sports late last year about the impact he had on their careers.

He just was one of those leaders you looked up to right away,” said 2023 debutant Weston Wilson. “Very welcoming, didn’t treat guys that had no service time differently than he treated guys with service time, so I respected that. I just think he’s the same guy every time, whether he’s doing good or bad, always encouraging others.”

“He’s a guy that’s really good at making fun of himself, which makes it a little easier to talk to him,” said Phillies rookie Otto Kemp, who pointed out all the time he spent in the batting cages with Schwarber. “He’s a perfectionist, but no ego. He kind of puts that aside and is a guy you can go up to at any point and ask about whatever. That’s special with a guy that’s been in the league as long as he has.”

The complication here, as usual, is money: The spending projection compiled by FanGraphs writer Jon Becker is for the 33-year-old Schwarber to receive $32M a year over a four-year term, a $128M contract that would easily represent a new Braves free agency high under Alex Anthopoulos.

The other complication is playing time: Atlanta having Ozuna (or Schwarber) locked into an everyday designated hitter role means less time available to rotate their veterans through the DH spot to give them a ‘half day’.

It doesn’t feel like this is the route Atlanta will go, as much as it’d be great to have prime Schwarber or 2023-2024 Ozuna in the lineup every day. Let’s keep looking.

Option 2: A platoon DH situation

On average, out of 675 or so plate appearances the average MLB player will get in a season, roughly 485 are versus right-handed pitching and about 190 will come against southpaws.

So the trick here is to find a lefty that can take 2/3rds of the at-bats and then supplement with either various bench righties or a dedicated righty bat.

I’m thinking about the 2024 Arizona Diamondbacks here, who gave former Braves outfielder Joc Pederson 407 PAs against righties (and got a .281/.392/.531 line with 22 homers and 60 RBI out of it) while using righty Randal Grichuk as their main lefty-crushing bat, with him getting 184 PAs against lefties with a .319/.386/.528 line.²

Staying internal

Looking at the lefty bats available on the Braves, the first name that sticks out on the internal options is Drake Baldwin.

2025’s NL Rookie of the Year was protected against lefties by former manager Brian Snitker but still managed to hit .299/.358/.460 against southpaws, albeit in a paltry 95 plate appearances. His colleague Sean Murphy, while sporting a poor .199 average on the year overall, had a .805 OPS against lefties with seven homers in just 96 ABs/116 PAs.

Safe to say that, assuming good health for both catchers, you can handle the weak side of the platoon with whichever guy isn’t behind the plate that day.

But what about hitting right-handed pitching? The Braves will need to bring someone in for that. Only Austin Riley (.259) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (.305) played more than 80 games and had an average of greater than .250 against righties from the right-hand side, while lefties with those same stats were limited to Matt Olson (.269), Drake Baldwin again (.268), and Michael Harris II (.252).

Outside of Drake Baldwin, all of those guys will more than likely already be in the everyday lineup, and Baldwin’s the first on the list of hitters to benefit from the availability of the designated hitter spot.

External adds

From a pure roster construction standpoint, what makes the most sense here is having the guy brought in to hit righties be someone who can also play the field. My choice is an outfielder, given that the biggest “keep this guy fresh” concern on the field is rightfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.

Let’s talk about Mike Yastrzemski. The grandson of Boston Red Sox great and Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, Mike’s a late bloomer (he debuted at the age of 28) but has carved out a role as a righty-hitting outfielder. Playing all three positions last year (but predominantly right field), the 35-year-old southpaw hit .256/.362/.446 with 15 homers in 454 PAs against righties for the Giants and Royals.

While it’s not the most ideal power package, as 15 homers on 3/4ths of the playing time at DH isn’t going to help recreate Ozuna’s roughly 39 a year, Yaz does a lot of other things well. He’s a very good baserunner and above-average defender, one who can cover centerfield on occasion, while being a low chase, low whiff guy at the plate who walks a lot.

It’s not a perfect fit, but it’s pretty good. If his salary, likely in the range of $8-10M, ends up being a bit too pricey for a 4th outfielder, there are some other options here. A potential trade acquisition could be Jesús Sánchez, the former Marlins outfielder who was traded to Dana Brown’s Houston Astros at the deadline. A trade centered around Sánchez for someone like Bryce Elder, a perfectly crumulent back-of-the-rotation starter that’s out of options, would make sense for both teams. Sánchez only has two years of team control to Elder’s four, but Sánchez is also a good baserunner and hitter, albeit one who skews more towards the Kevin Seitzer “hit the ball hard” mentality than the Tim Hyers “put the ball in play” mentality.

Having the strong side of the platoon be taken up by a defender gives Atlanta the flexibility to be more selective with the weak side of the platoon. Since there are multiple lefty-hitting internal options in the catcher room, combining a Yastrzemski or Sánchez with the other catcher that day could make a formidable pairing. If the Braves wanted to bring someone in specifically for that role, there are a few options that could work.

Austin Hays is a corner outfielder who’s a free agent after signing a one-year deal with Cincinnati last winter. Playing a decent left field for the Reds, Hays hit .319/.400/.549 against southpaws in 2025. Rob Refsnyder isn’t nearly the defender that Hays is, but the Boston Red Sox still put him in the lineup 70 times last year because he destroyed lefties to the tune of .302/.399/.560.

Option 3: Get you a man that can do both

Have you met Ryan O’Hearn?

The former Orioles and Padres slugger is a free agent for the first time this winter, so he’s likely not going to be very cheap. ³And honestly, he shouldn’t be: He hit .281/.366/.437 with 17 homers and 63 RBI. He’s more of a first baseman/DH at this point versus a corner outfielder, with 75 starts at the cold corner last year, 23 trips to the outfield, and being penciled in to the lineup 50 times while being told to leave his glove at home.

Other than the power profile being less than ideal from a designated hitter perspective, O’Hearn makes a lot of sense if Atlanta wants an everyday contributor in the lineup. His OPS split between LHP (.832) and RHP (.795) was less than 40 points, while he managed an impressive .919 OPS with runners in scoring position last year.

Other options here include Byron Buxton, who was recently reported to have indicated he would waive his no-trade clause if the Minnesota Twins wanted to send him back to his native Georgia to play for the Braves, and free agent Miguel Andujar, who hit .318 last year in a half-season of work with a statcast card that indicated that at least the contact rate was sustainable, even if the career high 10 homers aren’t. He has run expected batting averages of right around .260 for three consecutive seasons.

1. It feels within reach because it is - removing Sale’s 6.4 fWAR leaves Atlanta with 17.2, which would have been 7th.

2. Grichuk only played 41 games at DH with another 52 in the outfield, but he was still easily the 2nd-most used DH behind Pederson so we’re going with it.

3. Becker has him at a median projection of 2/$27.5M, an AAV of $13.75M a year.