The Brewers are among the teams with interest in Orioles first baseman Ryan O’Hearn, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. He adds that Milwaukee was one of the clubs in contact with the Diamondbacks about another lefty-hitting first baseman, Josh Naylor, before Arizona dealt him to Seattle.
O’Hearn is arguably just behind Naylor as the next-best impending free agent lefty hitter on the trade block. The 32-year-old O’Hearn was a first-time All-Star this season. He tore the cover off the ball for the season’s first two months, batting .333/.420/.542 with nine homers and eight doubles through the end of May. He’s down to a far less impressive .215/.318/.331 slash since the beginning of June. O’Hearn has been plagued by a meager .245 average on balls in play over this most recent stretch. His strikeout and walk profile remains strong, but his power output has dropped significantly. He only has three longballs over the past two months.
The slump is naturally a slight hit to O’Hearn’s trade value as Thursday’s deadline approaches. He’ll nevertheless be a popular target for teams looking for a boost against right-handed pitching. O’Hearn has a patient plate approach and has good if not elite batted ball metrics. He carries a strong .283/.348/.463 batting line when holding the platoon advantage going back to the start of 2023.
Baltimore is all but guaranteed to trade O’Hearn, who is a couple months from free agency. They presumably wouldn’t want to make him a qualifying offer, and they could give 23-year-old Coby Mayo everyday first base reps for the stretch run. O’Hearn is playing on an affordable $8MM salary, leaving roughly $2.5MM to be paid from the deadline on.
That should be a manageable sum for Milwaukee. They took on some money to fortify the backup catcher spot with tonight’s Danny Jansen trade. Jansen is another right-handed bat on a team that skews a little bit towards that side of the plate. They’re without lefty-hitting first baseman/corner outfielder Jake Bauers right now due to a shoulder impingement. O’Hearn is a better hitter than Bauers regardless. Andrew Vaughn has been playing first base every day with Rhys Hoskins also on the injured list. Vaughn has raked through his first 14 games in a Milwaukee uniform but hit .189/.218/.314 across 48 contests with the White Sox earlier in the year.