Ozuna tunes out Deadline noise during strong series against Royals

KANSAS CITY -- Marcell Ozuna has previously acknowledged that his agent and Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos would need to discuss anything related to the trade veto rights Ozuna had gained as a 10-year Major Leaguer who has played for the same team for at least five years.

But the veteran designated hitter claims he hasn’t spent the past few days thinking about the likelihood he will be traded before Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET Deadline.

“It’s business, whatever happens, happens. But I don’t want that on my mind,” Ozuna said. “I just come in every day to play. If they don’t put me [in the lineup], I still have the same energy.”

Ozuna also spent the past couple days showing he still has some power in his bat. He homered in the first two games of a three-game series that concluded with the Braves suffering a 1-0 loss to the Royals in 10 innings on Wednesday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

As the Braves lost for the 10th time in their past 13 games, they also benefited from a scoreless appearance from closer Raisel Iglesias, another veteran who could be traded within the next 24 hours.

Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said he didn’t think about the possibility Iglesias and Ozuna might have just played their final game for the club. But the skipper acknowledged the reality that this time of year creates a lot of tough goodbyes.

“Everybody accepts it,” Snitker said. “It's part of the game. It's never fun. You make great relationships with people. But that's this business, so just deal with it.”

Ozuna’s six-season stint with the Braves has been complicated by the legal issues and elongated on-field struggles he had during the 2021 and ‘22 seasons. Ozuna thrived in 2020 and re-established himself as one of the game’s top hitters from 2023-24. So, maybe it was fitting that this likely final season in Atlanta was topsy turvy.

Ozuna ranked ninth among all qualified MLB players with a .916 OPS over 306 games from 2023-24. He had a .901 OPS through June 1 this year. But this was a product of a high walk rate that provided an unsustainable .439 on-base percentage at the time. Once the walks decreased, the veteran slugger became a below-average offensive producer.

Even with the homers hit during this week’s first two games in Kansas City, Ozuna has just a .569 OPS over 173 plate appearances going back to June 2. The Braves came out of the break with the intention he would sit while catchers Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin got a majority of the time in the DH role.

With the Trade Deadline approaching this week, Snitker put Ozuna back in the lineup, seemingly to increase trade interest. Interested teams were given a chance to see a previously sore hip isn’t preventing Ozuna from playing.