Ryan O'Hearn Is the Weak Link Among Padres' Trade Deadline Acquisitions

At no point in his brief career with the San Diego Padres has Ryan O'Hearn gotten on track. 

The Padres acquired O'Hearn & Ramón Laureano from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for several prospects ahead of July's trade deadline. On the position player side, they also brought in Freddy Fermin from the Kansas City Royals to serve as an upgrade behind the plate. Laureano has provided stability in the outfield while serving as the team's best hitter in the second half, and Fermin has been an important addition from a defensive standpoint (even if his bat only appears occasionally). O'Hearn, meanwhile, has struggled mightily. 

When the Padres acquired O'Hearn, they were getting a hitter that came with a .286/.382/.458 slash line and a 136 wRC+. One who struck out only 16.3 percent of the time against a strong 12.2 percent walk rate. Since arriving in America's Finest City™, though, O'Hearn has regressed just about everywhere. His slash with San Diego is down to .242/.319/.379, while his wRC+ has fallen to the below-average side of the threshold (98). Worse yet, his strikeout rate has ballooned to 24.7 percent, in conjunction with a plummeting walk rate (8.8 percent).

While that output features no shortage of alarming trends, it's the strikeout rate that has immediately presents itself at the center of O'Hearn's woes in San Diego. More specifically, O'Hearn has had a tough time making contact altogether: 

What wasn't so much a problem in August has emerged as a serious one here in September. And the fact that O'Hearn is experiencing his worst month of swing-and-miss in 2025 is only scratching the surface of concern. especially when you consider from where the whiffs are coming: 

O'Hearn's whiffs inside the strike zone have skyrocketed since joining the Padres. That's an alarming trend on its own, of course. Factor in the additional fact that 31 percent of those in-zone whiffs are coming on fastballs (almost 10 percent higher than any pitch type), and it really begins to incite a certain level of panic. 

For what it's worth, this does appear to be a mechanical issue rather than anything within the approach. O'Hearn's swing tendencies and approach to the zone have varied only slightly from month to month this year. Other than a June blip where he swung at many more off-speed pitches while still in Baltimore, nothing would indicate that he's doing anything different in that respect. Mechanically, though, there are some elements of the swing worth noting. 

Upon arrival in San Diego, O'Hearn's bat speed dropped from 72.1 MPH, on average, to 71.2. His average attack angle fell from 13 degrees in July to just nine in August. His tilt and swing length didn't change in too notable a fashion between the two months, but the two former components may have a lot to say about from where these struggles are coming, especially given that each of those stats has started to come back up thus far in September. 

O'Hearn's bat speed has crawled back up only slightly (71.5), but is at least closer to what he'd been putting up in the months prior. The attack angle has steepened back out to a 12 degree mark that sits more in line with what he'd been doing previously. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that his hard hit rate is back up about five percent (30.0) and his average exit velocity is up about two miles per hour (87.5). He's also been able to elevate more, with an identical flyball rate to August and a line drive rate up about three percent (23.3 percent). That those numbers are back on the rebound suggests that the mechanical issues were at the heart of what was pinning down O'Hearn's ability to produce since his arrival (in addition to the whiffs). 

Of course, now he needs to get the contact volume going in the right direction and for luck to fall back in his favor. While getting his mechanics back on track is leading to some encouraging underlying trends in the contact game, O'Hearn is still striking out almost 25 percent of the time and has a BABIP of just .267 in September. It's not ideal to need both things to fall in your favor, but the higher the contact volume, the more chances you have to get the BABIP to level out. As such, it stands to reason that if O'Hearn can get the former getting in the right direction, the latter won't be too far behind.