Free Agent Profile: Ryan O’Hearn, 1B/OF/DH

Ryan O’Hearn

Position: 1B/OF/DH B/T: L/L
Player Data: Age: 32 (07/26/1993)

2025 Traditional Stats: 144 G, 544 PA, .281/.366/.437/.803, 133 H, 17 HR, 63 RBI
2025 Advanced Stats: 127 wRC+, 20.0 K%, 10.7 BB%, .330 BABIP, .350 xwOBA, 3.0 fWAR

Rundown

The 32-year-old Ryan O’Hearn started his big-league career with the Kansas City Royals. The former Sam Houston State Bearkat spent five seasons in Kansas City. However, since leaving, he has seemingly reinitialized a career that was trending downward fast after a terrific 2018 season. In 2018, his rookie season, he posted a career-best .950 OPS across a limited 149 at-bat sample. Though, following that strong rookie season he posted a negative wins above replacement in each of his final four seasons with the Royals. Since joining Baltimore in 2023, O’Hearn posted OPS seasons of .801, .761, and .803, respectively, over the last three seasons.

Contemplating a more robust sample, 2025 was O’Hearn’s best season. He split time between the Orioles and San Diego Padres, slashing .281/.366/.437 with 17 homers and 63 RBIs. His 2024 season was also strong, a year he posted the second-highest fWAR of his career. He slashed .264/.334/.427 (.761 OPS) to go along with 15 homers and 59 RBIs.

The underlying metrics in both 2024 and 2025 tell a very similar story; O’Hearn walks at an above-average, doesn’t swing-and-miss a ton, and makes strong contact. All has contributed to a huge turnaround for a player that struggled so dearly from 2019 through 2022.

O’Hearn is far from a perfect player though. His main issues come against left-handed pitching. He has only had between 340 and 475 at-bats the last three seasons due in large part to his inability to hit lefties. His career OPS against southpaws is .642, and in 2024 was barely above the .600 mark.

With that being said, an extremely interesting development occurred in 2025. O’Hearn posted a career-best .832 OPS against lefties which was even higher than the .795 mark he had against right-handed pitchers. This enabled the 32-year-old to post the most at-bats of his career (544).

Defensively, O’Hearns plus-five outs above average in 2025 was in the league’s 89th percentile. Over the last five seasons his fielding run value has been negative only once. For more context, in 2025, O’Hearn posted a plus-four defensive runs saved (DRS), plus-six outs above average (OAA), and plus-six fielding run value (FRV). All three of these figures ranked toward the top of the league and his overall defensive value, according to Fangraph’s ranked first among 30 first baseman. In comparison, Alonso ranked dead-last in Fangraph’s overall defensive value and near the bottom in DRS, OAA, and FRV, all of which were negative.

Contract

As far as what a deal may look like, O’Hearn would bring vast savings compared to Alonso. The Athletic projects a two-year, $24 million deal ($12 million annually) while Sportstrac only projects a two-year deal worth $11.5 million annually. O’Hearn only made $3.5 million last season in the final year of his deal.

Recommendation: Worth Checking In

All eyes are on Pete Alonso for New York this offseason. The Mets’ franchise leader in home runs is once again on the market. If Alonso were to walk, president of baseball operations, David Stearns, and his staff, will likely need to go externally for a replacement. O’Hearn would be someone that makes a lot of sense too.

O’Hearn has hit right-handed pitching at a very strong clip since his departure from Kansas City. His hitting profile also is strong, as he relies on walks, solid contact, and not a ton of swing-and-miss. He also provides a defensive upgrade at first and technically gives you some more versatility as he has also played in the outfield. To top it off, in 2025, he also showed major improvement against left-handed pitching which has been his demise all throughout his career. Granted, the larger sample indicates this more of a blip rather than sustainable. But, if is somehow is an indicator of what he will do going forward, bringing in O’Hearn would provide immense value.

Speaking of value, saving $15 million-plus annually to bring in O’Hearn and let Alonso walk would allow the Mets to sign some right-handed hitting insurance to platoon with O’Hearn. It also allows you to dedicate additional resources to a pitching staff that desperately needs help. If Alonso walks, O’Hearn should be considered heavily.

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