Just less than two weeks ago, it felt as if the Atlanta Braves had completely turned their season around. They swept the New York Mets to kick off a two-plus-week run of games against NL East rivals. They had a chance to get back in the NL East race once and for all.

Instead, they lost Chris Sale for who knows how long, lost a series against the lowly Miami Marlins, only managed a series split against the reeling Mets and dropped a home series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Their recent poor play makes it fairly clear that Marcell Ozuna’s days with the organization are numbered.

The Braves had a golden opportunity to make things interesting. Sure, they had gotten off to a rough start this season, but nobody can disagree with the assessment that their roster is uber-talented. Instead, the Braves not only lost their ace, but also went 4-6 against their NL East rivals. Now, Atlanta is 38-45 on the year and sits 10.5 games back of the first-place Phillies in the NL East and 8.0 games back of the third Wild Card spot in the National League.

The postseason feels entirely too unrealistic for the Braves to be anything but trade deadline sellers. I’m not here to say the Braves should tear things down, but trading a veteran on an expiring contract who they likely won’t bring back for next season anyway, like Ozuna, feels like a no-brainer.

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Braves must accept their trade deadline fate

It truly felt as if this 10-game run was Atlanta’s last chance to make a big push and prove they’re a team worth investing in. It couldn’t have gone much worse given the Sale injury and their sub-.500 outcome.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to believe in this team right now. There are some major bright spots, like the play of Ronald Acuña Jr. and the emergence of Spencer Schwellenbach, but their lineup consists of maybe three reliable hitters at most, their rotation is thin after the Sale injury and their bullpen has been a question mark all season long.

The Braves are too far behind to be seen as serious threats in the NL East, even with the Mets and Phillies scuffling right now, and the National League is too deep for Atlanta to be seen as Wild Card contenders as well. Ultimately, this team almost closer to last place in the NL East than they are to jumping any of the teams in front of them in the Wild Card race.

Trading Marcell Ozuna will help more than it’ll hurt

Trading a guy like Ozuna might hurt in the short term, but it’s not as if he’s having an outstanding season anyway. Given the injury he’s playing through, who’s to say he’ll even get going at the plate? Ozuna has a 57 WRC+ in the month of June, placing him 174th out of 187 qualified position players in. It’s been bad as is.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, Ozuna is on an expiring contract. Given his age (34) and the fact that he doesn’t play in the field at all anymore, the odds of Atlanta giving him the big-money deal he’ll likely be seeking this winter are slim. Trading a player who almost certainly won’t be back when the postseason isn’t realistically in reach makes too much sense.

The Braves would open DH at-bats for one of their two slugging catchers (Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin) and would potentially fetch a player or two who can help them in 2026 or beyond, when their chances of competing will likely be better than they are right now. It’s never fun trading an established veteran midseason, but Sunday’s loss should make Alex Anthopoulos’ deadline plans crystal clear. It’s time to move on.