ESPN predicts Marcell Ozuna’s next destination

Among the Atlanta Braves trade candidates, Marcell Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias appear to already have one foot out the door. Both are proven veterans on expiring contracts. Amid down years, they aren’t going to cost a ton of prospect capital to acquire, but they have enough upside to generate interest.

Over at ESPN, David Schoenfield recently predicted the 10 biggest trades of the deadline, with Marcell Ozuna going to the Padres landing at number nine on the list.

“The Padres are one of the potential landing spots for O’Hearn as they look to boost an offense that ranks in the bottom third of the NL in runs scored. Since we have O’Hearn going to the Astros, the domino falls to Ozuna going to the Padres to fill their DH hole. (They don’t have a regular there.) His $16 million salary — or about $5.4 million over the final two months — might be a little steep for the Padres, but we know that general manager A.J. Preller will do something. He always does. Ozuna’s power numbers are down this season, plus he has been terrible the past two months, so there is some risk here, but he had an OBP over .400 in April and May.”

I do think there will be a market for Marcell Ozuna, even if it is not as robust as it might have been a couple of months ago. This prediction is also right in line with a recent report from Héctor Gómez, who said talks between the Padres and Braves for Marcell Ozuna have intensified, with a pair of top 30 prospects going to Atlanta in return.

However, it is kind of funny that national beat reporters are still talking about Marcell Ozuna like he’s one of the 10 best players that will be traded at the deadline. The Big Bear is hitting .164 with three homers and a .524 OPS over his last 38 games. The tear in his hip that he suffered early in the season is clearly impacting his performance, and while a desperate team will probably take a gamble on him, he’s not one of the 10 best players that will be traded anymore.

If the Braves can get anything of value for Marcell Ozuna, it should be viewed as a win for Alex Anthopoulos and company.