<img alt="New York Mets v Atlanta Braves: Game One" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bGsvufNIz7Vt1XNG_JMfDt_NGeg=/0x0:4107x2738/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73792627/2175025535.0.jpg">
Photo by Todd Kirkland/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Laureano was a scrapheap addition who did wonders for the Braves’ battered outfield and even wrested a starting role from others in the process. In a season where so many things went wrong for the Atlanta Braves, there may not have been a more pleasant and unexpected surprise on the offensive side of the ball than Ramon Laureano. It’s probably not hyperbole to say the club would not have made the postseason without his services at the plate, and that says a lot about a player whose career had cratered after a PED suspension and was flat-out released prior to joining the team in May.
How acquired
Days after losing Ronald Acuña Jr. to a torn ACL, the Braves signed Laureano to a minor league deal following his unceremonious release from Cleveland. He spent two weeks in Gwinnett and absolutely crushed the ball with an OPS upwards of 1.000 before getting the call to Atlanta.
What were the expectations?
The expectations were fairly low, as Laureano hit a paltry .143/.265/.229 with the Guardians while striking out 39 percent of the time. Still, the 30-year-old outfielder was once a darn good hitter with Oakland (119 wRC+ prior to suspension) and was worth buying a lottery ticket on. Acuña was set to miss the rest of the season, the Trade Deadline was two months and 60 games away, and the corner outfielders on the 40-man roster were hardly inspiring any confidence with their play.
More broadly, with or without the context that Laureano had struggled so badly with the Guardians that he got cut, his PED suspension made it hard to figure out exactly what kind of player he was going to be going forward. He had never posted an xwOBA below .335 before the suspension, but when he returned for 383 PAs in 2022, it sank to .307, a number he then repeated in another 404 PAs the following year. His post-suspension performance was so consistent, and so starkly different, that it seemed like “light-hitting outfielder with defensive update” was Laureano’s new description, contrary to his prior, potentially PED-aided “good hitter, good defender, 4 WAR/600 outfielder” persona.
2024 results
If I told you Alex Anthopoulos traded for an outfielder who hit .296/.327/.505 (129 wRC+) and played OK-ish defense, we would have danced in the streets given the offensive woes this team had all summer. Now imagine that same player was signed off the scrapheap for virtually no cost, risk, or prospect capital. It was a home-run addition.
It was not always perfect for Laureano — more on that in a moment — but this was a bottom-tier group of outfielders on the whole, especially with Acuña and Michael Harris II missing huge chunks of time. Meanwhile, Laureano had 1.1 fWAR in just 226 PAs for the Braves, and while yes, that involved outhitting his xwOBA by quite a bit, his xwOBA itself was still .330, basically getting back to where he left off prior to the suspension.
What went right
Laureano was just OK in his first two weeks with the team (92 wRC+) before missing nearly a month with an oblique issue, showing that he, too, was not immune from the ancient curse the Braves apparently placed on themselves this season. But upon his return, he mashed the baseball to the tune of a 135 wRC+ and became an integral part of the middle of the lineup. Only Matt Olson finished with a higher wOBA from August-onward, and Laureano’s .334 xwOBA August-on ranked sixth.
Laureano effectively became the full-time starter in mid-August and was even better with a 142 wRC+ from that point forward. He completely iced a struggling Jarred Kelenic in left field while Jorge Soler hit-but-didn’t-catch-anything in right.
A decent chunk of Laureano’s strong performance was fueled by a .387 BABIP, but not a soul was complaining as the Braves slogged their way through a seemingly never-ending run of low-scoring, 50/50 games throughout the summer. Laureano was one of the few constants in the lineup.
Here’s him hitting a three-run homer in a game that eventually turned into a blowout:
Among other random stuff that went right, Laureano posted the most valuable arm in baseball, despite not really playing full time. He also posted the best barrel rate of his career (even including his time in Cleveland) and basically transitioned to a very Braves-esque fastball whacker that tried to jump on something hittable and pull it over the fence in left field.
What went wrong
It was all good offensively. Defense, however, was a different adventure.
On the whole, Laureano was OK-ish given the circumstances. Defensive Runs Saved graded him at +3 in 2024, but that imputes positioning, so it isn’t really much of a reflection of his skillset. On a personal, positioning-neutral basis, Outs Above Average gave him -6 OAA, though half of that was him being awful defensively with Cleveland. There were a couple of very notable miscues in the outfield that we will briefly re-live again, although I’m not sure anyone wants to.
It felt like Laureano developed a case of the dreaded Yips for a short period where he was flat-out awful defensively, but then settled down as time passed. This was the worst of the worst, an overrun baseball at Citi Field to give the Mets an extra innings win.
RAMON LAUREANO OVERRUNS IT AND THE METS WIN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/CVFtfC4BLq— SNY (@SNYtv) July 26, 2024
It was hardly the disaster that was Jorge Soler in right field, but there were moments of real frustration with Laureano defensively. And, that wasn’t the last time Laureano overran a ball in the outfield, either, which is kind of bizarre, because if you do it in a way that causes you to directly lose a game, you should probably ensure it never happens again.
There was also a disastrous squeeze play attempt in the same series. I’m still not sure what Laureano and Kelenic were thinking, but it was yet another low point for the season.
The squeeze play goes wrong for the Braves!Both teams exchange some words after Ramon Laureano and Francisco Alvarez collided pic.twitter.com/hB4ncWC9r5— SNY (@SNYtv) July 26, 2024
2025 Outlook
The Braves opted to non-tender Laureano for 2025 despite his offensive performance at the plate, although they would likely point to his batted ball fortune and paltry 3.5 percent walk rate as reasons to suspect he won’t repeat it again. If he were due something closer to say, $3 million in arbitration, they might have tendered him a contract, but at a projected arbitration salary north of $6 million, they didn’t want to take the risk.
Laureano projects for 0.6 WAR in about 400 PAs next year via Steamer, which is about the straight average of his performance and playing time over the last three seasons, with some age-related decline baked in. ZiPS is more sanguine at 1.3 WAR in 390 PAs. In any case, that’s not really a starting-caliber guy and one you’re not excited about being saddled with a $6 million outlay (or more, potentially).
I wouldn’t be shocked if the Braves reunite with Laureano later in the winter depending on how their other pursuits go, but there was no reason to lock themselves into him so early in the offseason. Laureano may have interest across the league as a fourth outfielder if teams feel his Atlanta performance was repeatable moving forward.
<img alt="New York Mets v Atlanta Braves: Game One" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bGsvufNIz7Vt1XNG_JMfDt_NGeg=/0x0:4107x2738/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73792627/2175025535.0.jpg">
Photo by Todd Kirkland/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Laureano was a scrapheap addition who did wonders for the Braves’ battered outfield and even wrested a starting role from others in the process. In a season where so many things went wrong for the Atlanta Braves, there may not have been a more pleasant and unexpected surprise on the offensive side of the ball than Ramon Laureano. It’s probably not hyperbole to say the club would not have made the postseason without his services at the plate, and that says a lot about a player whose career had cratered after a PED suspension and was flat-out released prior to joining the team in May.
How acquired
Days after losing Ronald Acuña Jr. to a torn ACL, the Braves signed Laureano to a minor league deal following his unceremonious release from Cleveland. He spent two weeks in Gwinnett and absolutely crushed the ball with an OPS upwards of 1.000 before getting the call to Atlanta.
What were the expectations?
The expectations were fairly low, as Laureano hit a paltry .143/.265/.229 with the Guardians while striking out 39 percent of the time. Still, the 30-year-old outfielder was once a darn good hitter with Oakland (119 wRC+ prior to suspension) and was worth buying a lottery ticket on. Acuña was set to miss the rest of the season, the Trade Deadline was two months and 60 games away, and the corner outfielders on the 40-man roster were hardly inspiring any confidence with their play.
More broadly, with or without the context that Laureano had struggled so badly with the Guardians that he got cut, his PED suspension made it hard to figure out exactly what kind of player he was going to be going forward. He had never posted an xwOBA below .335 before the suspension, but when he returned for 383 PAs in 2022, it sank to .307, a number he then repeated in another 404 PAs the following year. His post-suspension performance was so consistent, and so starkly different, that it seemed like “light-hitting outfielder with defensive update” was Laureano’s new description, contrary to his prior, potentially PED-aided “good hitter, good defender, 4 WAR/600 outfielder” persona.
2024 results
If I told you Alex Anthopoulos traded for an outfielder who hit .296/.327/.505 (129 wRC+) and played OK-ish defense, we would have danced in the streets given the offensive woes this team had all summer. Now imagine that same player was signed off the scrapheap for virtually no cost, risk, or prospect capital. It was a home-run addition.
It was not always perfect for Laureano — more on that in a moment — but this was a bottom-tier group of outfielders on the whole, especially with Acuña and Michael Harris II missing huge chunks of time. Meanwhile, Laureano had 1.1 fWAR in just 226 PAs for the Braves, and while yes, that involved outhitting his xwOBA by quite a bit, his xwOBA itself was still .330, basically getting back to where he left off prior to the suspension.
What went right
Laureano was just OK in his first two weeks with the team (92 wRC+) before missing nearly a month with an oblique issue, showing that he, too, was not immune from the ancient curse the Braves apparently placed on themselves this season. But upon his return, he mashed the baseball to the tune of a 135 wRC+ and became an integral part of the middle of the lineup. Only Matt Olson finished with a higher wOBA from August-onward, and Laureano’s .334 xwOBA August-on ranked sixth.
Laureano effectively became the full-time starter in mid-August and was even better with a 142 wRC+ from that point forward. He completely iced a struggling Jarred Kelenic in left field while Jorge Soler hit-but-didn’t-catch-anything in right.
A decent chunk of Laureano’s strong performance was fueled by a .387 BABIP, but not a soul was complaining as the Braves slogged their way through a seemingly never-ending run of low-scoring, 50/50 games throughout the summer. Laureano was one of the few constants in the lineup.
Here’s him hitting a three-run homer in a game that eventually turned into a blowout:
Among other random stuff that went right, Laureano posted the most valuable arm in baseball, despite not really playing full time. He also posted the best barrel rate of his career (even including his time in Cleveland) and basically transitioned to a very Braves-esque fastball whacker that tried to jump on something hittable and pull it over the fence in left field.
What went wrong
It was all good offensively. Defense, however, was a different adventure.
On the whole, Laureano was OK-ish given the circumstances. Defensive Runs Saved graded him at +3 in 2024, but that imputes positioning, so it isn’t really much of a reflection of his skillset. On a personal, positioning-neutral basis, Outs Above Average gave him -6 OAA, though half of that was him being awful defensively with Cleveland. There were a couple of very notable miscues in the outfield that we will briefly re-live again, although I’m not sure anyone wants to.
It felt like Laureano developed a case of the dreaded Yips for a short period where he was flat-out awful defensively, but then settled down as time passed. This was the worst of the worst, an overrun baseball at Citi Field to give the Mets an extra innings win.
RAMON LAUREANO OVERRUNS IT AND THE METS WIN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/CVFtfC4BLq— SNY (@SNYtv) July 26, 2024
It was hardly the disaster that was Jorge Soler in right field, but there were moments of real frustration with Laureano defensively. And, that wasn’t the last time Laureano overran a ball in the outfield, either, which is kind of bizarre, because if you do it in a way that causes you to directly lose a game, you should probably ensure it never happens again.
There was also a disastrous squeeze play attempt in the same series. I’m still not sure what Laureano and Kelenic were thinking, but it was yet another low point for the season.
The squeeze play goes wrong for the Braves!Both teams exchange some words after Ramon Laureano and Francisco Alvarez collided pic.twitter.com/hB4ncWC9r5— SNY (@SNYtv) July 26, 2024
2025 Outlook
The Braves opted to non-tender Laureano for 2025 despite his offensive performance at the plate, although they would likely point to his batted ball fortune and paltry 3.5 percent walk rate as reasons to suspect he won’t repeat it again. If he were due something closer to say, $3 million in arbitration, they might have tendered him a contract, but at a projected arbitration salary north of $6 million, they didn’t want to take the risk.
Laureano projects for 0.6 WAR in about 400 PAs next year via Steamer, which is about the straight average of his performance and playing time over the last three seasons, with some age-related decline baked in. ZiPS is more sanguine at 1.3 WAR in 390 PAs. In any case, that’s not really a starting-caliber guy and one you’re not excited about being saddled with a $6 million outlay (or more, potentially).
I wouldn’t be shocked if the Braves reunite with Laureano later in the winter depending on how their other pursuits go, but there was no reason to lock themselves into him so early in the offseason. Laureano may have interest across the league as a fourth outfielder if teams feel his Atlanta performance was repeatable moving forward.
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