{"id":95075,"date":"2025-02-04T16:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T21:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=95075"},"modified":"2025-02-04T16:34:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T21:34:16","slug":"orioles-ramon-laureano-one-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/04\/orioles-ramon-laureano-one-year-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles Add Key Outfield Piece to Roster on Short-Term Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles have reportedly reached an agreement with outfielder Ram\u00f3n Laureano on a one-year, $4 million contract, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/1886871693551104242\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic&#8217;s Ken Rosenthal<\/a>. The Orioles announced Tuesday that they have designated infielder Luis Vazquez for assignment. This move opens a spot on the 40-man roster for Laureano, whose deal is now official.<\/p>\n<p>Laureano, who was released by the Cleveland Guardians following a slow start to the 2024 season, found a career resurgence after signing with the Atlanta Braves in May. He quickly became one of Atlanta&#8217;s more dependable hitters, transitioning from a platoon role into a regular spot in the lineup. By season&#8217;s end, Laureano became a key offensive presence.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"headlinestyle__HeadlineWrapper-sc-1ccyctx-0 jDETbc Styles__StickyHeadline-sc-1wye7kw-2 cHcHkC\">Orioles Land Ram\u00f3n Laureano on One-Year Deal<\/h2>\n<p>Laureano, 30, posted a .259\/.311\/.437 slash line along with 11 home runs and 33 RBI in 98 games last season. He even had a long stretch from July 31-Sept. 11 in which he hit .337 with a .907 OPS. Laureano had 16 multi-hit games for the Braves, including five three-hit games.<\/p>\n<p>Laureano adds to an already crowded outfield, assuming all players remain healthy and on the roster. Baltimore has three near-locks for the Opening Day roster in Cedric Mullins, Tyler O&#8217;Neill, and Colton Cowser. Heston Kjerstad is also expected to break out this season. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/27\/dylan-carlson-orioles-one-year-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">signing of Dylan Carlson<\/a> further strengthens the outfield. While Laureano can play center field if needed, he is projected as a corner outfielder, given the range of Mullins, Cowser, and utilityman Jorge Mateo. His arm, ranked in the 100th percentile by Statcast, is among the best in the league.<\/p>\n<p>The spring training competition for the outfield will be closely watched. Laureano\u2019s signing provides the Orioles with flexibility, offering cover if they trade Kjerstad or another outfielder for a starting pitcher.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to O&#8217;Neill, Carlson, and Laureano, the Orioles have also <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/07\/orioles-sign-gary-sanchez-free-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">added<\/a> catcher Gary Sanchez and veteran pitchers Charlie Morton and Tomoyki Sugano to strengthen their starting rotation.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles have reportedly reached an agreement with outfielder Ram\u00f3n Laureano on a one-year, $4 million contract, according to The Athletic&#8217;s Ken Rosenthal. The Orioles announced Tuesday that they have designated infielder Luis Vazquez for assignment. This move opens a spot on the 40-man roster for Laureano, whose deal is now official. Laureano, who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":95076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1071,35],"tags":[5113,28657,3338,3640,1108,2501,1978],"class_list":["post-95075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-mlb","category-news","tag-cedric-mullins","tag-colton-cowser","tag-dylan-carlson","tag-heston-kjerstad","tag-jorge-mateo","tag-ramon-laureano","tag-tyler-oneill"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95079,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95075\/revisions\/95079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}