If competing for a playoff berth is like pulling on a rope, the Atlanta Braves have pretty much exhausted all the slack they had by the end of June.
At 38-45, the Braves are eight games out of playoff position. They’ve lost ace Chris Sale for the foreseeable future, and though their once-vaunted offense is healthy, most of them seem to have forgotten how to hit in 2025.
If the Braves’ position in the standings doesn’t improve within the next month, it’s hard to envision a scenario in which trading for more veterans makes sense. Instead, their only move may be to pivot to selling off their expiring contracts and trying to quickly reload for next season.
That means the only big name the Braves would have to seriously think about trading is designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, who isn’t having as big a season as he did in 2023 and 2024, but is still a very productive hitter.
And there would be teams interested. On Sunday, Mac Cerullo of the Boston Herald named Ozuna as a candidate to fill the void for the Boston Red Sox that was left behind with the trade of designated hitter Rafael Devers.
“There probably isn’t any one player the Red Sox could realistically acquire who could fill Devers’ shoes at designated hitter, but Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna would be a great start,” Cerullo wrote.
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“Ozuna is coming off back-to-back 100 RBI seasons in which he hit 39 and 40 home runs respectively, and while he isn’t on that kind of trajectory this year he remains among baseball’s most feared sluggers. His walk rate is also way up and is currently more than twice the MLB average.”
Ozuna, 34, is playing through a hip injury this season, and at this point, every team knows it. He has a .770 OPS, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but does make his $16 million salary (the final season of a five-year, $81 million contract) a lot to stomach.
Will Ozuna end up in Boston, or anywhere outside Atlanta? One month from Monday, we’ll know the answer.
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