It wasn't that long ago that the Atlanta Braves limiting Marcell Ozuna's playing time or trading him would have been unthinkable. Ozuna averaged a .916 OPS over the last two seasons and most just assumed that he would be able to replicate that success this season. Unfortunately, a hip injury slowed Ozuna early in the season and his timing has been off for most of 2025, leading to some big changes in how the Braves deploy the 34 year-old DH in his contract year.
With a .233/.367/.395 line through 102 games, playing Ozuna every day should not happen when Atlanta has both Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy on the roster. However, completely benching Ozuna given their feelings for him and the fact that he is about to be a free agent feels a bit severe. The Braves also don't want to run Baldwin or Murphy into the ground by the end of the season.
After a bit of trial and error, it does appear that that Braves have found the right balance with Ozuna and his playing time the rest of the season that still fields the best lineup most of the time, but that also respects a player that has played well for the Braves when they really needed it previously.
After keeping him at the trade deadline, Braves seem to have the right idea with Marcell Ozuna's playing time
It does seem like the Braves would have preferred to trade Ozuna at the deadline if they could have gotten a return for him. Unfortunately, Ozuna's poor play and recent legal problems limited his market and ultimately led Atlanta to just keep him for the remainder of the season instead of giving him up for peanuts.
That still created a bit of a conundrum for the Braves because Baldwin has easily been the best hitter of the three players and Murphy has shown flashes of brilliance this season. Ozuna not having any defensive value whatsoever limits the team's options as well. However, playing Ozuna in certain matchups as well as when Baldwin catches (most of the time) feels right. It gives Ozuna chances to shine while resting him a good bit while giving Atlanta's lineup the best chance to succeed on a night to night basis.
Now, Ozuna may still think that he is an everyday player and may disagree with how he is being used, but the numbers say that he should be lucky getting to play at all. Atlanta is at least giving him a chance to rebuild his value before he hits free agency and that is just going to have to be enough.