Orioles add outfielder Laureano on one-year deal

BALTIMORE -- Last Friday, Orioles general manager Mike Elias stated he was still ¡°targeting improvements¡± to the club in the final days ahead of Spring Training. It seemed likely that any potential additions would be pitchers.

However, it turns out Elias was not quite done boosting the position-player side of the roster.

The Orioles agreed to a one-year contract with outfielder Ramón Laureano on Tuesday, the team announced. The deal is worth $4 million for the 2025 season, a source told MLB.com¡¯s Mark Feinsand. It also includes a club option for ¡¯26, which is worth $6.5 million, per MLB Network insider Jon Heyman.

Laureano, 30, is a right-handed hitter with seven years of MLB experience. He spent the 2024 season split between Cleveland and Atlanta, slashing .259/.311/.437 with 16 doubles, 11 home runs and 33 RBIs over 98 games.

The O¡¯s outfield mix has suddenly gotten a bit crowded, as they previously signed switch-hitter Dylan Carlson to a one-year, $975,000 deal on Jan. 27. Laureano and Carlson are among seven outfielders on Baltimore¡¯s 40-man roster.

Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Tyler O'Neill (who signed a three-year, $49.5 million deal in December) are locks for the Opening Day roster. Heston Kjerstad will have a strong case to make the team. Daz Cameron is also serving as depth on the 40-man.

Laureano¡¯s best big league seasons came early in his career with the A¡¯s, who acquired him in a trade with the Astros in November 2017. He was a 16th-round Draft pick of Houston in 2014, when Elias was serving as the Astros¡¯ scouting director.

Upon breaking into the Majors in 2018, Laureano immediately impressed for the A¡¯s, posting 2.2 bWAR over a 48-game sample that included five homers and an .832 OPS. He built on those results in 2019, when he had career bests in bWAR (3.5), doubles (29), home runs (24), RBIs (67), OPS (.861) and games played (123).

Laureano is a career .247 hitter with a .749 OPS over 610 games. He has 11 games of postseason experience -- nine with the A¡¯s from 2018-20, then two for the Braves in ¡¯24 -- and he can play all three outfield spots.

Among Laureano¡¯s strongest traits is his arm strength, which earned him the nickname ¡°Laser Ram¨®n¡± early in his MLB career. It ranked in the 89th percentile in baseball last year, per Baseball Savant, and he¡¯s placed in the 80th percentile or better every season since Statcast began tracking the metric in 2020.

With Anthony Santander departing via free agency and signing a five-year, $92.5 million deal with the Blue Jays, the Orioles needed to add right-handed power this winter. They¡¯ve done so with the additions of O¡¯Neill, Laureano and Carlson, although it¡¯s hard to envision all three of them making the roster out of camp.

It¡¯s always possible, however, that Baltimore is not done modifying its roster. It continues to have plenty of position-player depth, which could be valuable if the O¡¯s look to acquire pitching on the trade market. And that remains the most likely way they could add a frontline starter, considering the free-agent pool has greatly thinned.

So it will be interesting to see what else the Orioles may decide to do in the days ahead. Pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota, Fla., for Spring Training on Feb. 12, with the first full-squad workout scheduled for Feb. 18.