The San Diego Padres officially lost out on Ryan O’Hearn in free agency after the 1B/DH signed a two-year, $29 million deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Dec. 23. While this was, for the most part, expected, it still leaves a hole on the roster that needs to be patched quickly, as the team is yet to hear anything on the status of Luis Arráez.

Arráez’s market has faltered recently, more than most people had originally expected heading into free agency and winter meetings. The reason for this is that teams would rather dish out long-term, lucrative deals to power hitters rather than those who hit for contact. While Arráez displays some of the league’s best bat-to-ball skills, his lackluster defense and inability to run the bases well have teams questioning whether or not he is worth the 4+ year contract that he desires.

Marcell Ozuna could be the perfect fallback if Arráez chooses to leave

While there have been no reports of Arráez leaving just yet, there certainly haven’t been any that indicate he is staying either. If president of baseball operations, A.J. Preller, can’t get a word out on the 28-year-old soon, he may just have to pull the plug and blindly fill in the hole.

With that being said, there is one fallback at designated hitter that almost makes too much sense to sign.

Unlike Arráez, Ozuna would command a short-term deal due to his age and the fact that he saw a drop-off in production this past season. These two factors alone could give the Padres a perfect case to go out and sign the 35-year-old power hitter.

In 2025, Ozuna .232/.355/.400 with 21 home runs…classic power hitter numbers. But a stat that gets overlooked quite a bit (since it is more advanced) is walk rate; Ozuna ranked in the top 2 percent across all of baseball in this metric. His ability to be patient and wait for the pitch to hit would be perfect for a San Diego lineup that is already filled with power hitters. Ozuna is also a guy who doesn’t chase pitches out of the zone very often, only doing so 22.3 percent of the time.

Not only is Ozuna going to be on the cheaper side of what is an incredibly niche designated hitter market, but he is going to provide a veteran presence and great skills at the plate.

If Arráez chooses to leave, Preller should be all in on Ozuna for these reasons.