The Guardians have released outfielder Ramón Laureano, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’ll now head to the open market and will be free to explore opportunities with all clubs.
This was the most likely outcome when the Guardians designated Laureano for assignment last week. The outfielder’s production has been trending down for a few years now and is at an especially low point this year. The 29-year-old has hit .143/.265/.229 thus far in 2024 while striking out 38.6% of the time.
On top of his poor performance, his salary has been creeping up gradually via the arbitration process. He’s making $5.15MM this year and any team acquiring him via a waiver claim or trade would have been taking on that money. It’s unsurprising that no club wanted to take that on, given how he has been playing of late. He has more than five years of service time, meaning he can reject an outright assignment while also keeping that salary in place.
Now that he is a free agent, teams may be interested in a low-cost flier. Since he’s now been released, the Guardians are on the hook for what’s left of the money, meaning that any club that signs him would only be responsible for the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Guards pay.
It’s been a few years now, but Laureano was once a solid regular for the Athletics. From 2018 to 2021, he stepped to the plate 1,257 times for the A’s and hit 49 home runs. His .263/.335/.465 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 119, indicating he was 19% above league average in that time. He also stole 34 bases and was generally given strong defensive grades, leading FanGraphs to credit him with 8.6 wins above replacement in 313 games.
But towards the end of that 2021 season, he was given an 80-game PED suspension and his performance has been tailing off since then. He hit .211/.287/.376 in 2022 for a wRC+ of 95 and his offense slipped a bit farther in 2023. The A’s designated him for assignment in August of last year and the Guards put in a claim.
Moving to Cleveland seemed to spur a bit of a bounceback, as Laureano slashed .243/.342/.382 for a wRC+ of 106 down the stretch. That apparently intrigued the Guards enough that they tendered him a contract, agreeing to the aforementioned $5.15MM salary. But he has fallen off dramatically and now finds himself looking for his next opportunity.
As mentioned, Laureano can be signed to a major league roster at essentially no cost. Perhaps some club would give him a spot and see if he can play well enough over the next two months to be flipped for a lottery ticket prospect. Or even if no club is willing to bite on that, he should at least be able to find a minor league deal somewhere.
“The trojan toss” needs to be KILLED.
Guys…guys….no one cares
This is the second Guardians thread in a row where someone has said another poster should be k*lled, what is wrong with you guys
Hello Braves?
AA is playing 3D Jenga.
isn’t Jenga always 3D?
Yeah, I’ve already used 3D Frogger.
“A.A is playing 3D Jenga”……After the Chris Sale acquisition and extension; it’s more like A.A is playing time traveling, 5D, multiple dimensional chess and everyone else is playing single dimensional checkers.
8D canasta?
= my new band name…
I find it odd how many players get popped for steroids and their play doesn’t decline. But this looks like he needed them to perform at the highest level.
“Popped for steroids…Play doesn’t decline”….What players are you looking at?…Virtually every player I’ve ever seen(at Major League level)get popped for PEDs has had his play decline rather noticeably afterwards. Players like Ramon Laureano, Fernando Tatis, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez etc…There IS a reason players take the PEDs in the first place you know.
tatis’s play didn’t decline LMAO, besides he was injured….of course his plays going to decline….besides, a’rods play declined because of age, not roids…..same thing with Manny lol…
At least one these guys will become a Brave
Ross Atkins needs to have an epiphany that Davis Schneider is not a LF and needs to get on the phone to Ramon’s agent.
No, the Jays cannot use Ramon, that would be another Atkin’s gaffe.
@jimmertee
I though I had you muted. My mistake.
Semi pro softball league in his future
Rent a player for Atlanta. Will be same outcome as Wendle once they get a better OF. Thought Zach was getting the short end but guess he’s a better fielder than Wendle.
Ramon was great while with the A’s. One day the PDFs stuff came out – aka Bonds, Canseco, McGuire at all – and well the master of all jack trades Oakland’s Billy Beane and his top lieutenant Dave Forst pulled the plug on Laureano just like that…
“PDFs stuff came out”…MLB had to take a stand and come down hard on Laureano. Baseball can’t have players using PDF format files. It’s unforgivable. Especially when there’s other formats they can use for their files.
Oakland had to let him go because Ramon was converting all of the a’s files into PDFs and Ramon said he didn’t know what a PDF is, he committed 2 cardinal sins in the Oakland organization
He really benefited from the live ball year in 2019. Then went towards the roids to try to get similar offensive numbers. Probably was just an elite defensive player all along.
You have to question the arm as well now.
Had some people fooled for a while for sure. I was one.
You knew all along right ?
Skills disappear so fast for some players. Makes one appreciate the skills of players who perform year after year that much more.
Bench guy for the Braves???
Release the hound
Wow, quite the fall from grace. I guess Roids created this guy. Its kinda obvious there is a problem. I doubt anyone will touch him for the big leagues.
That kind of drop off….Ryan Braun, Robinson Cano, Chris Davis, Brady Anderson, Chris Collabello, Dee Gordon, on and on….Steroids work.