The future of Atlanta’s designated hitter position after 2024
With Marcell Ozuna potentially hitting free agency after the 2024 season, Atlanta has options on what to do with the designated hitter role.
One of the themes for the Atlanta Braves under president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has been long-term contractual control. After this winter’s trade with the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Jarred Kelenic, Atlanta has three or more years of team control at every single defensive position on the roster. It’s a situation that’s quite unprecedented in Major League Baseball.
But that doesn’t mean every position has that same sort of long-term certainty.
Designated hitter, manned the last few seasons by Marcell Ozuna, is one where some change is potentially coming over the horizon.
Ozuna, who originally signed a one-year contract for 2020 and then followed that with a three-year pact the next offseason, is entering the final year of that deal, making $16M in 2024.
His performance, despite the slow start last season, was worth the salary in 2023: a .274 average, with 40 homers and 100 RBIs.
But Ozuna’s entering his age 33 season and, prior to 2023, put up two seasons with batting averages between .213 & .226, as well as missing time due to broken fingers and being arrested…twice.
He’s expected to reprise his role as DH for 2024, but what happens after that? Let’s look at the options:
Marcell Ozuna does have a 2025 club option
It’s fair to wonder what Atlanta’s going to get out of Marcell Ozuna in 2024, as he’s not produced up to expectations in two of his four seasons with the Braves.
Of the last three seasons, he lost most of 2021 to both injury (broken fingers) and suspension, putting up a .213/.288/.356 line with 7 homers in 48 games.
2022 was mostly healthy for Ozuna, minus a May abdominal issue, but the statistical production wasn’t there: .226/.274/.413 w/ 23 HRs in 124 games.
It wasn’t until 2023 where Atlanta got the 2020-level production they expected out of Ozuna. In that shortened, 60-game season, Marcell batted .338/.431/.636 with an NL-leading 18 homers and 56 RBIs en route to a Silver Slugger spot in the National League and a 6th-place finish in the NL MVP voting.
But if Ozuna gets right back to mashing like he did in 2023, picking up the 2025 club option for $16M would make a lot of sense. (If not, it’s a $1M buyout).
Could the Braves take the “DH by committee” approach?
This feels unlikely for several reasons, but it’s worth discussing.
Some MLB teams prefer, rather than carrying a primary DH, to rotate their position players through the DH spot to give them a reduced workload one or more days a week.
Some teams take this philosophy to the extreme, with the San Francisco Giants using ten different players at the position in 2023.
For the Braves, it’s easy to see (depending on depth and backups) how this could get accomplished – divide duties amongst Matt Olson, Austin Riley, whichever catcher is not batting that day, and even (occasionally) Ronald Acuña Jr to cover a majority of the starts.
But there’s a few reasons why this feels unlikely, starting with the fact that so many of Atlanta’s position players prefer to play every day. Matt Olson started all 162 games in 2023, the 2nd straight year he’s done so. Ronald Acuña Jr and Austin Riley only missed time for mild injury/illness reasons, starting 159 games each, while Ozzie Albies played 148.
Additionally, one of the logical options to spend time at DH in that scenario, Travis d’Arnaud, is himself potentially not a member of the team in 2025, as he’s on an club option year after the extension he signs last season runs its course.
Could Atlanta replace the DH from within?
There’s been numerous suggestions this offseason, especially after the acquisition of outfielder Jarred Kelenic, that the Braves set up Vaughn Grissom to be the next designated hitter.
If he’s still a member of the roster at that point – not a given, as Atlanta’s reportedly still exploring trades for starting pitching upgrades and he’s at the peak of his trade value – it’s an idea worth exploring. However, so far in his professional career, Grissom hasn’t shown the prototypical power you’d expect a designated hitter to have, with a major league slugging percentage of only .407. Even in his best minor league season, 2023’s in AAA Gwinnett, his slugging percentage of .501 was primarily fueled by doubles, with a Gwinnett-record 36 and only 8 homers in 468 plate appearances.
There is hope, though, in the Braves farm system – corner infield prospect David McCabe. The 23 year-old Canadian slugger, expected to start next season with AA Mississippi, mashed 17 bombs last season in Single-A Augusta and High-A Rome and is widely projected to be one of the best power hitters in the organization, along with catching prospect Drake Baldwin.
McCabe’s inclusion on the 2025 roster, if ready, could suffice to give corner infield depth as well as a switch-hitting option at designated hitter. (Baldwin, if he’s ready before McCabe is, could potentially take over as backup catcher for Travis d’Arnaud and fill the same DH role on days he’s not starting).
There’s always free agency options
A quick peek at 2025 free agency shows a variety of options hitting the market, from full-time DHs like Eloy Jimenez of the Chicago White Sox to older veterans that could fill in at a corner outfield (Max Kepler) or infield spot (Anthony Rizzo) if needed.
Now, whether Atlanta elects to spend money on a designated hitter in the same offseason in which both Max Fried and Charlie Morton are hitting free agency remains to be seen, but designated hitter is a significantly easier position to fill at a value price than a postseason starter in your rotation.
What’s most likely?
There’s lots of paths Atlanta could take to filling the DH role in 2025, but the good news is that they have time to figure that out. Perhaps Vaughn Grissom continues to physically develops and finds that “man strength”, as manager Brian Snitker likes to say. Maybe Marcell Ozuna continues to show that he’s capable of producing at a high level and the money makes sense for Atlanta to bring him back.
Either way, it feels like this is something that Atlanta will be able to easily take care of when the time comes.
