Ramón Laureano is a different hitter in 2025. He’s also much the same hitter he was in 2019, when he had the best offensive season of his career before posting a .225/.309/.392 slash line over the next four seasons.
Sometimes, what’s old is new again.
And that’s what has made Laureano perhaps the best Trade Deadline acquisition of them all this year.
When Padres general manager A.J. Preller was looking at potential ways to upgrade San Diego’s roster as the July 31 Trade Deadline approached, Laureano stood out for several reasons.
“He’s a guy that was performing well and has the ability to play multiple outfield spots, and we've always had good reports about his competitiveness and his makeup, his love for the game,” Preller said of the decision to acquire Laureano, along with Ryan O’Hearn, from the Orioles.
“And he's been able to come off the bench, hit in different spots in the lineup. He’s been in the pennant race. For all those reasons, he kind of stacked up pretty high on the list of players we were looking at.”
And if you made a list of the players who were traded prior to the Deadline by how they’ve performed since joining their new teams, he’d probably be at the top.
Since donning a Padres uniform, Laureano -- to this point in his career known primarily for his outfield defense -- is hitting .298/.357/.539 with eight home runs in 38 games entering play Friday, helping fuel the Padres’ quest for their first division title in 19 years. And prior to that, he had an .884 OPS with 15 homers for Baltimore.
He's on pace for career bests in hard-hit rate, barrel rate, expected batting average, expected slugging percentage, expected weighted on-base average and strikeout rate. And of all the months in his career, four of the top five in terms of xwOBA are from 2025.
Just how much of a difference has it made for San Diego?
Through July 31, the Padres ranked 26th in the Majors in wRC+ from their left fielders (74). Since then, they’re No. 1 (186).
A game of adjustments
It began in the four-day span from May 25 to May 29, 2024.
That was the period in which Laureano had to look in the mirror and decide what would happen next.
“I had just been released by Cleveland,” he said. “So I was just like, ‘Whatever. It is what it is.’ And then I thought, let me just do this.”
“This” was making significant changes to his approach in the batter’s box.
When the Braves signed him on May 29 of last season, little did they -- or Laureano -- know that he would be a different man at the plate.
The secret to Laureano’s rejuvenation?
“Choking up on the bat,” he said with a smile.
Well, not just choking up, but choking up has been a major part of what’s made him so successful this year.
So has moving deeper in the batter’s box and farther away from the plate, as well as closing up his stance.
In 2023, Laureano’s placement in the right-hand batter’s box was 25.9 inches from the front of the plate, on average. This season, he’s averaged 30.4 inches deep.
In 2023, Laureano was, on average, 27.7 inches off the plate. This year, he’s averaging 31.5 inches off the plate. He's also narrowed the distance between his feet in the box from 27.7 inches to 17.7 inches, and he's more upright.
“I couldn’t see sliders away against righties,” Laureano said of why he backed off the plate, something he implemented this year. “That’s why my chase percentage was up [before].”
Indeed, his chase percentage has dropped dramatically, from 30.4% in 2024, to 24.4% in ’25.
With the chase rate down, he’s ahead in the count more. And he’s capitalized in that scenario.
“Top five OPS in hitter’s counts in the league, I think,” Laureano said.
He’s right. In fact, he’s tied for fourth -- his 1.355 OPS when ahead in the count trails only Shohei Ohtani, Nick Kurtz and Aaron Judge (entering play Thursday; minimum 100 plate appearances that ended when the batter was ahead in the count).
OPS when ahead in the count -- 2025
(Minimum 100 PAs ending when ahead in the count)
1. Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers -- 1.421
2. Nick Kurtz, Athletics -- 1.382
3. Aaron Judge, Yankees -- 1.363
4-T. Ramón Laureano, Padres -- 1.355
4-T. Wilyer Abreu, Red Sox -- 1.355
Laureano’s deeper position in the batter’s box has changed his average point of intercept -- the point at which he makes contact (or, if he misses, the point at which his bat is closest to the ball). In 2023, his average intercept was 7.5 inches in front of the plate. This season, it’s 2.2 inches in front.
In other words, he’s letting the pitch get deeper before swinging as a result of moving back in the box. That affords another advantage: a split-second longer to make a swing decision.
The change in batter’s box depth and distance from the plate is perceptible to the naked eye. But the fact that he has closed up his stance is less obvious, though not trivial.
In 2023, Laureano’s stance angle was considered “open” at zero degrees. This year, it’s angled five degrees toward the plate.
He said it was the result of a gradual and unconscious drifting from what had been a closed stance early in his career.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, man. No clue,” Laureano said. “For some reason, I thought I had to get my hips moving faster, and I was landing open. My upper body was facing the first-base coach. Now, it’s facing the first-base dugout.”
And then there’s a change that would make Barry Bonds proud.
“If you’re choking up on the bat, you get more barrel control,” Laureano said.
Simple, and in this case, transformational.
The dividends of reinvention
The fact that Laureano did the kind of “baseball soul-searching” that it sometimes takes to rejuvenate a career is one of the reasons Preller and Co. traded for him.
It’s a process that proves a player’s mettle in the face of failure.
“It’s been good to see,” Preller said. “You see him with the ax-handle bat, choked up, off the dish. He’s obviously in a good spot in terms of players figuring out what works for them and kind of having to reinvent themselves a little bit.”
You know what they say: Necessity is the mother of invention -- or in this case, reinvention.