While the playoffs are still ongoing, the offseason has functionally arrived for the Atlanta Braves. It truly sucks to have to watch some of the Braves' most notable mortal enemies battling it out for ultimate glory, this time of year is also a great time to think about how the offseason could unfold and what changes hopefully for the better we could see in Atlanta for the 2025 season.
We have already seen a good bit of Braves roster speculation. There is a good bit of chatter around the idea that the Braves could go after shortstop Willy Adames as an upgrade over Orlando Arcia. As a whole, the upcoming pool of free agents has plenty of targets and pitfalls for the Braves with both experts and fans alike weighing in on what Atlanta should do. The early offseason is where the world is full of possibilities and folks are taking full advantage of it.
However, that has also invited a host of truly horrid offseason takes. Most of those come from people that have baked in agendas regarding a specific player or team and nothing more, but Bleacher Report's recent piece that threw some unpopular trade ideas for every MLB team out there included the Braves trading Marcell Ozuna.
Just remembered that even after a 40-HR/100-RBI there were still suggestions on this app for the Braves to trade Marcell Ozuna . . . 😂
— Leslie Mines (@LeslieMinesIII) April 21, 2024
Here we are a few weeks into the 2024 season and Marcell is leading the majors in home runs. 🤷🏽♂️🐻#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/wr9yjVuRjW
B/R proposes bizarre Marcell Ozuna trade for the upcoming offseason
There was certainly a point in time when the Braves would have happily traded Ozuna. His performance in 2021 and 2022 was dreadful with a pair of sub-.700 OPS campaigns along with some pretty serious off-the-field legal troubles. As much as Braves fans seem to love Ozuna these days, the vast majority of them would have been thrilled to be rid of Ozuna a couple years ago. However, times have changed since then and has created a number of problems when it comes to trading him.
Moving Ozuna this offseason isn't completely without logic. With both Ozuna and Jorge Soler on the roster, the Braves have a pair of "outfielders" that have no business playing in the field at all. Once Ronald Acuna Jr. returns from his injury, the Braves are going to have a real roster problem given the number of outfielders on their roster versus the available playing time. Moving Ozuna now when his trade value is high and in a market that doesn't have a ton of affordable impact hitters on shorter deals available isn't completely unreasonable.
Where this whole thing ultimately breaks down is that given the Braves already threw their support behind Ozuna, moving him now when he is clearly one of their absolute best hitters is pretty dubious. Atlanta's offense was colossally disappointing in 2024 and the idea that they would pick up Ozuna's 2025 option only to trade him during the offseason is extremely likely to make the lineup strictly worse in 2025 and make a lot of Braves fans very upset. There was a time when Soler looked like he could supplant Ozuna as the Braves' DH, but he didn't look anything like the guy he was in 2021 after the Braves traded for him again at the deadline.
To B/R's credit, they sold this idea right off the rip as an unpopular trade idea and this Ozuna trade certainly qualifies. The Braves also should at least look at novel solutions to reload their farm system with a Raisel Iglesias trade being another unpopular, but potentially lucrative option. That said, moving Ozuna now in the context of all of the Braves' previous decisions and where they sit now just doesn't make any sense.