The Guardians have designated outfielder Ramon Laureano for assignment, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic. In his place, the team is promoting outfield prospect Johnathan Rodriguez for his MLB debut. Rodriguez is already on the 40-man roster, so the move also frees up a 40-man spot for Cleveland. Guardians Prospective first reported that Rodriguez was getting the call to the big leagues.
Laureano, 29, came to the Guardians early last August after the A’s placed him on waivers in hopes of finding a taker for the remainder of last season’s salary. The Guardians obliged, hoping that Laureano would provide a boost down the stretch as they tried to keep pace in the American League Central. The veteran did provide a bit of offense, hitting .243/.342/.382 following the claim (106 wRC+), but the Guards wound up missing the postseason.
It was something of a surprise to see a budget-conscious team like Cleveland tender Laureano a contract this winter. He wound up agreeing to a $5.15MM salary, which amounted to a significant portion of the Guardians’ very limited offseason resources. The team made that commitment despite Laureano having turned in a bleak .224/.304/.371 slash (91 wRC+) on the season overall — and a .218/.296/.373 batting line in 2022-23 combined (93 wRC+).
The decision didn’t go at all as the Cleveland front office or the player himself hoped. Laureano’s strikeout rate has absolutely erupted to a career-worst 38.6% this season. He’s hitting just .143/.265/.229, albeit in a small sample of 83 plate appearances. Just four of his 10 hits have gone for extra bases (one homer, three doubles). The Guardians will have a week to try to trade Laureano, place him on outright waivers or release him.
Given the pronounced nature of Laureano’s struggles at the dish and his relatively notable salary, they won’t find a trade market for his services. Laureano is overwhelmingly unlikely to be claimed on waivers due to that salary and will thus likely clear and become a free agent. He has enough service time to retain all of his salary even if he rejects an outright assignment in favor of free agency.
Earlier in his career, Laureano was a quality regular in Oakland. From 2018-21, he turned in a sound .263/.335/.465 batting line (119 wRC+) with 49 homers and 34 steals over the life of 1257 plate appearances. That came while playing strong defense across all three outfield spots. Laureano was an oft-rumored trade candidate and might well have been part of Oakland’s fire sale, but an 80-game PED suspension midway through the 2021 season tanked his value. That proved all the more costly, as his suspension surely played a role in pushing the A’s to part with left-hander Jesus Luzardo to acquire Starling Marte from the Marlins in a rental deal while Oakland made a push for the postseason.
As for the 24-year-old Rodriguez, he’ll step into the Cleveland outfield for his MLB debut after hitting .276/.389/.449 in 185 Triple-A plate appearances this season. The 2017 third-rounder entered the season ranked 23rd among Guarda farmhands at Baseball America, 16th at MLB.com and 30th at FanGraphs.
The 6’0″, 225-pound Rodriguez draws praise for his plus raw power but also some skepticism for his penchant to chase and whiff. He’s walked in a huge 15.7% of his plate appearances in Triple-A Columbus but also fanned at a 25.4% clip. That’s a suboptimal mark against Triple-A pitching but also a marked improvement over 2023’s 32.4% strikeout rate in 202 Triple-A plate appearances. Rodriguez is a former switch-hitter who now bats exclusively from the right side of the plate. He popped 29 homers between Double-A and Triple-A last season, and he’s already slugged seven long balls on the season.
Strikeouts will likely continue to be a part of his game, but probably not to the extremes that Laureano experienced this season. Rodriguez will also add some legitimate thump to a Cleveland lineup that in recent years has been light on power but is turning a corner this season. Thanks in part to a big step forward from emerging star Josh Naylor, the Guards rank ninth in the majors with 51 big flies on the season. Rodriguez gives them another power bat. He won’t be nearly as strong a defender in the outfield corners as Laureano was, but MLB.com pegs him as a potentially average right fielder and Baseball America touts his plus throwing arm.
about time. l was surprised they resigned him
The timing is interesting to me. The Guardians have been waiver wire hawks this year for pitching. There’s like 6 pitchers recently DFA’d and this opens up a roster spot to claim one.
I like Ramon but it was time, he simply has no produced at all.
Agreed. I saw the logic behind having him on the team. But he didn’t produce and it is time to give Rodriguez the chance to see what he can do on the major league level.
Career 271. Average versus lefty pitching not saying it will happen Or it should happen, but I wonder if Texas will give him a look. Considering the team is batting 208. Vs lefties this year he has been just as bad this year.
Thought that is why they traded for Grossman.
Well he hasn’t done anything so just got to keep adding.
The Rangers have last priority in DFA’s so this will be a long shot to get him.
It seems impossible that he will be claimed.. nobody is going to want that salary. They can get him on a minors deal after he clears.
Only if Cleveland releases him.
Trades could work, but that won’t get much value for his large salary.
It seems pretty unlikely wants that salary. He will almost certainly clear waivers, reject his minors assignment, and become a free agent.
Literally no one is claiming him making 5m.
Still only 29, Laureano looks like a good minor league depth piece for any team, but not MLB-worthy based on horrible stats this year and his general downtrend over several seasons. Cleveland is going to have to eat the rest of the contract as he has enough roster time to turn down an assignment to the minors.
Sorry about that last part – Steve updated his report before I could delete my last sentence that was part of his update (and the “edit” button had disappeared).
Mariners on their way to sign him to let Haniger go to bench
Such a shame. He really looked overmatched at the plate this season..
After Cleveland acquired him last season, he actually looked pretty good. He really is a fantastic defender and he was hitting well enough.. especially against lefties, which was a soft spot for the Guardians.
I was hoping Daniel Schneeman might get the call..
“A’s to part with left hander Jesus Luzardo”….The A’s found Jesus Luzardo immature and traded him for pennies on the dollar. I’m pretty sure they regret that move, since now Luzardo is worth a couple top prospects, probably including at least 1 top 100 youngster.
See the immature tag more often than would like and everyone knows to put it out in the open is because the issues have become so obvious that they can’t be covered/explained away any longer.
How many pitchers for example now relieving, rather than starting, just because they cannot work within a routine regarding off days for a starter? how many hitters peel off half way to 1b on a grounder? how many showboat/super slow walk around bases after hitting 1 out?
it’s gotten to a point, after being left alone for so long where correcting bad behavior isn’t allowed, or not following instructions. Grown men, claim to be acting like??
“Immature tag”…If my memory serves me well, I remember Luzardo broke his hand(playing video games)and the A’s became disenchanted with him and flipped him for pennies on the dollar, even though he was their top pitching prospect at the time.
It goes both ways. No doubt some getting it for?? Reasons.
mentioning the broken hand by a (then) top starter prospect reminds me of one from like.. ’16, 17 the year this incident happened.
(then) milb player, top prospect, bullet thrower who now plays for the chisox, broke his pitching hand in a fight with his milb roomie. he’s gone in a blockbuster deal next offseason, despite team’s lack of developing starting pitching.
A’s haven’t made a good trade in god knows when… Can maybe argue the Montas trade, I think they got Sears who is solid but they ask for the moon then give away guys to the Braves for garbage.
The a’s are the only team I’ve seen where they trade an all star for (bad) prospects and then a year later trade one prospect for nothing (why did they trade pache?)
Farhan Zaidi has joined the chat…
I’m sorry to disappoint you Farhan Zaidi, but there’s no AAAA players on this bulletin board.
Ross Atkins is trying to figure out how to place an outside call… ;o(
Would the Phillies dare to try and trade Whit Merrifield for him.? It would save them about 2/3 mil and allow them to keep Kody Clemens on the roster once Turner comes back.
Cleveland has no need for Merrifield.
Kody has started to get better very fast like his father, I wonder if Roger gave him some special silly formula in his drinks (I’m joking Kody is cool he isn’t a PED’er)
Amazing to both claim he does take PEDs and claim to know that he doesn’t take PEDs, both within the same comment, both without any evidence at all
I was joking about Kody taking PED’s didn’t I say that
Still perplexed why the Phillies signed Merrifield. He looked so done and baked last season. Well he hasn’t hurt the Phillies too much obviously, but they could use the upgrade.
“overwhelmingly unlikely” paragraph 5. Sheesh.
When did Cleveland last have a strong outfield???
2006?
Laureano benefitted from the juiced ball season and hasn’t put up power like that since. The longer he slumped the more hope that he would regress to the mean in an explosive fashion. That obviously wasn’t really going to happen despite the well wishing. This is probably the guy they should’ve called up when Kwan went down.
He might’ve had double juice that season.
I liked Laureano on the juice, and he has a cannon for an arm.
I will always remember that deep throw from Center to first baseman right on the nose. That was such a deep shot – I hoped he would hit but all he had was upgrade on defense but not enough to give cover to lack of hitting.
Steroids, dudes never been the same since.
Yes, and he’s a prime example of what PEDs do for you, co ready to many that don’t believe they can make one a better baseball player.
Never was the same after that PED thing.
I’ve heard through the grapevine that he’s was Vogt’s choice to make the opening day roster (having played with him previously) and the front office “gave” him that one. Based on the team’s (over)performance, I’m sure the FO said enough is enough and the roster spot needs more value now.
Have to give the FO credit for pulling the chain on Laureano when nobody but Vogt wanted him on the roster to begin with. I also have to give them credit for leaving Myles Straw in AAA to this point. His game has not improved even 1% over last year, and I’d like to think they’ll leave him down there like they did Plesac last year.
Straw looks even worse at Columbus. Same batting average, same plate discipline, same results. Would be really nice to have Yainer Diaz splitting DH/1B duties with Naylor. Would make the Civale trade a lot different.
Had bieber not hurt last year bieber was supposed go to Tampa bay for Manzano and two other prospects. Civale got traded instead and had a Era over 5 with Tampa bay.
Source?
That 2019 super ball jazzed up a lot of hitter’s stats. The lucky ones had contracts expire that year, they raked on pay, never to see those hitting stats again. This year the dead ball will give hitters who end contracts this year some low pay going forward.
David Fry made him expendable. Now rodruguez keeps the seat warm until kwan returns.
His bat made him expendable
Once I really looked at him in an A’s dugout . I thought he was a bad seed with an iffy bat and a strong arm .
“Earlier in his career, Laureano was a quality regular in Oakland. From 2018-21, he turned in a sound .263/.335/.465 batting line (119 wRC+) with 49 homers and 34 steals over the life of 1257 plate appearances. That came while playing strong defense across all three outfield spots. Laureano was an oft-rumored trade candidate and might well have been part of Oakland’s fire sale, but an 80-game PED suspension midway through the 2021 season tanked his value.”
Dude essentially stole a career and made millions doing it.
Reds should sign him. His 38% k rate is actually an improvement from Benson.
It’s so wild how quickly some once promising players stars begin to dim. It feels like not long ago, he was arguably the centerpiece of the A’s lineup and looked to be an ascending five-tool player and long-term piece. I still remember watching highlights of some of his ridiculous throws from center field to the home plate.
He’s still got that arm. Laureano is really impressive on defense.
“Laureano is overwhelmingly unlikely to go unclaimed on waivers due to that salary and will thus likely clear and become a free agent. ”
I don’t think that sentence says what Steve wished to say. Unless you change “unclaimed” to “claimed” on waivers, or “likely to go unclaimed”…
Hopefully Fry can be given some more ABs until he cools off, along with Rodríguez while they wait on Kwan. Fry may also benefit if they send Naylor down… The “punchless” Guardians have been quite potent at the plate.
Fry’s not cooling off. He’ll end the season with a 1.000 OPS in 120 games and receive A. down ballot MVP votes B. the AL utility Silver Slugger award
The David Fry Fan Club must happen!