Ramón Laureano Jr. (born July 15, 1994) is a Dominican professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

for the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2018.

Early life

Ramón Laureano is the only son of Nina and Ramón Laureano. He was raised in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

Career

Houston Astros

Laureano played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 16th round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. He made his professional debut with the

Greeneville Astros The Greeneville Astros were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Rookie-level Appalachian League from 2004 to 2017. They represented the town of Greeneville, Tennessee, though Pioneer Park, their home stadium, was located in nearby ...

in 2014 and batted .189 with one home run and two RBIs in 16 games, and played 2015 with the Quad Cities River Bandits, batting .265 with four home runs, 34 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. Laureano started 2016 with the Lancaster JetHawks and was promoted to the Corpus Christi Hooks in July. Laureano finished 2016 with a combined .319 batting average along with 15 home runs, 73 RBIs and a .955 OPS in 116 total games between both teams. He returned to Corpus Christi in 2017 where he posted a .227 batting average with 11 home runs, 55 RBIs and 24 stolen bases.

Oakland Athletics

After the 2017 season, Laureano was eligible to be selected during the Rule 5 draft. Instead of placing him on the 40-man roster to prevent his selection, the Astros traded Laureano to the

in exchange for pitcher Brandon Bailey on November 20, 2017. On August 3, 2018, the Athletics called up Laureano, and he made his major league debut. His first major league hit that night was a walk-off single to break a scoreless tie in the 13th inning against the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

. Since the RBI became a stat in 1920, Laureano is the first Athletic to hit a walk-off RBI hit as their first major league hit. On August 20, 2018, he hit his first two major league home runs off Bartolo Colón in a 9–0 shutout victory over the Texas Rangers. On September 7, 2018, he hit two more home runs in an 8–4 win over the Rangers, becoming the first player in A's franchise history to have two multi-homer games in his first 30 career games, achieving the feat in 29 games played. On May 7, 2019, Laureano robbed

Joey Votto Joseph Daniel Votto (born September 10, 1983) is a Canadian-American professional baseball first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut with the Reds in 2007. He is the first Canadian MLB pla ...

of a home run in the sixth inning against the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

, which would aid Mike Fiers's second career no-hitter. In 2019, Laureano batted .288 with 24 home runs and 67 RBIs. On defense he led all major league center fielders in errors, with 7, and had the lowest fielding percentage of all major center fielders (.974). In the Wild Card Game, Laureano drove in the Athletics' only run with a sacrifice fly. The Athletics were defeated 5–1 by the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home v ...

. On August 9, 2020, Laureano was ejected for the first time in his career for charging at the Houston Astros bench to go after Astros hitting coach Alex Cintrón, causing the benches to empty. He was suspended six games on August 11 due to the incident, while Cintron was suspended for 20. On appeal, Laureano's suspension was reduced to four games, beginning on August 14. In 2020, he batted .213, with 6 home runs, 25 RBIs, posted a .338

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

and a .366

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player ...

. He had an AL-leading 12 hit by pitches. On August 6, 2021, Laureano was suspended by MLB for 80 games for testing positive for the performance enhancing drug

nandrolone Nandrolone, also known as 19-nortestosterone, is an androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) which is used in the form of esters such as nandrolone decanoate (brand name Deca-Durabolin) and nandrolone phenylpropionate (brand name Durabolin). Nandrol ...

. On October 1, Laureano underwent core surgery. His suspension continued through the first 27 games of the 2022 season. On May 8, 2022, Laureano played his first game after his suspension. On July 11, 2022, Laureano misplayed a sinking line drive hit by the Rangers’ Josh Smith, resulting in an inside-the-park home run. On January 13, 2023, Laureano signed a one-year, $3.55 million contract with the Athletics, avoiding salary arbitration.

Skills profile

Laureano has drawn attention for the strength and accuracy of his arm.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laureano, Ramón 1994 births Living people Corpus Christi Hooks players Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States Dominican Republic sportspeople in doping cases Glendale Desert Dogs players Greeneville Astros players Lancaster JetHawks players Las Vegas Aviators players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic Nashville Sounds players Oakland Athletics players Quad Cities River Bandits players Sportspeople from Santo Domingo