The San Diego Padres are slumping a bit. They have fallen out of playoff position and have lost back-to-back games.
At 45-39, they are fortunately only just a half-game back of the St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card race entering play on Wednesday, which is enough to justify them being buyers at the trade deadline.
The biggest hole they have is at the designated hitter position. They could use another bat to bolster that spot.
ESPN's David Schoenfield predicts that San Diego will trade for Atlanta Braves slugger Marcell Ozuna.
"The Padres have used their DH slot to give Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and others an occasional day off from the field, but it hasn't worked, with the Padres ranking near the bottom of MLB in OPS at DH. Ozuna's June slump is a concern, but his OBP would be the best on the team and help boost an offense that ranks in the bottom third in the NL in runs per game," Schoenfield wrote.
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The Padres lost Jurickson Profar in the offseason and also didn't do much in the way of adding players to their roster in free agency or via trade.
The trade deadline represents another opportunity to strengthen their roster.
Ozuna has struggled a bit this season. He is slashing .244/.369/.392 with 11 home runs, 40 RBI and a .761 OPS. However, the three-time All-Star still has value, as he is one year removed from a 39-homer, 104-RBI campaign.
The veteran slugger could reunite with Mike Shildt, the current Padres manager who was at the helm while Ozuna was in St. Louis back in 2018 and 2019.
With the Braves falling out of contention, a trade makes sense, and a change of scenery could help Ozuna finally break away from his struggles in Atlanta.
It will be interesting to see how the Padres operate in the coming weeks.
More MLB: Braves urged to dump $81 million 3x All-Star in deadline blockbuster