With one month to go before the Major League Baseball trade deadline, it feels as if the Atlanta Braves are still liable to do just about anything.
The Braves are eight games out of a Wild Card spot on Monday and seven games under .500. The odds don't look good, but the only Braves team that won a World Series this century looked dead in the water at around the same point in the season.
In 2021, the Braves completely rebuilt their outfield at the trade deadline. They don't need an overhaul like that if they still plan on competing this season, but their offense could certainly use some extra thump.
Ryan O'Hearn of the Baltimore Orioles is probably the best bat they'd be able to find, especially at the positions they'd have available. O'Hearn is a first baseman/designated hitter/outfielder, and the Braves need middle infielders and outfielders.
On Monday, CBS Sports' R.J. Anderson named the Braves as a possible landing spot for O'Hearn, who he felt was a strong candidate to be traded based on his impending free agency (he's currently making $8 million in arbitration).
"If the Orioles sell, moving an impending free agent like O'Hearn would make sense. He's quietly (though perhaps not so much anymore) turned into a developmental win, boosting his stock from a Quad-A first baseman who struck out too much to a platoon ace," Anderson wrote.
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"O'Hearn has seen more action in the outfield this season, and I suppose that added optionality can only boost his stock, even if the draw here is and will remain his well-above-average offense against right-handed pitching. Potential landing spots: Astros, Mariners, Braves."
The Braves would need to use O'Hearn primarily as an outfielder, because Matt Olson is the best first baseman in the league this season and Ozuna can only DH. But with the amount of ground Michael Harris II covers in center field, it's not unreasonable to think he could handle left field for a few months.
It might never happen, and the Braves might look silly in the long haul if it did. But there is certainly logic behind a Braves pursuit of O'Hearn.
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