Ramón Laureano Lands with New Club

Jason Burke | May 29, 2024

Aug 27, 2023; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Cleveland Guardians right fielder Ramon Laureano (10) celebrates in the dugout with team mates after hitting a two run home run againt the Toronto Blue Jays in the 11th inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports / Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves have brought in yet another key member of the Oakland A's most recent playoff runs, signing Ramón Laureano to a minor-league deal, per Robert Murray of FanSided. Laureano will be headed to Triple-A Gwinnett to join the Stripers squad.

Laureano broke out for the A's in 2019 when he hit .288 with a .340 OBP and 24 home runs, in addition to providing sterling defense in the outfield. Since that season things haven't gone quite as well for the 29-year-old, which ultimately led the A's to place him on waivers in August of last year. The Cleveland Guardians swooped him up, and he was an above-average player for the Guards in 41 games with the team.

Over the offseason, Cleveland hired Laureano's former teammate Stephen Vogt to be the team's new manager, and you have to wonder if that brought any added internal pressure for Ramón. This year the outfielder has hit just .143 with a .265 on-base and one home run, though he still has the skills in the outfield that helped put him on the map.

Now he'll be in the same organization as Matt Olson and Sean Murphy, two players that the A's traded to Atlanta in recent years, and two former teammates of Laureano's. There is no doubt that Ramón has the talent to be an effective big leaguer, but he has always been a cerebral player, and sometimes that gets in his way.

Laureano will be joining former teammates Skye Bolt and Zach Logue, and former A's farmhands Parker Dunshee and Grant Holmes in Triple-A.

The hope for this move is that he'll be able to find the right groove and hit his stride with Atlanta, potentially even helping to replace some fraction of the production they'll be lacking with Ronald Acuña Jr. set to miss the rest of the season.

As we wrote about earlier today, Laureano may not be the only A's player that ends up in Atlanta this year. How well he plays could determine Atlanta's next steps on the trade market.