3 Early Outfield Trade Targets to Boost Milwaukee Brewers Offense
By Paul Bretl
Milwaukee Brewers Outfield Trade Target: Ramon Laureano – Oakland Athletics
It wasn’t too long ago that Ramon Laureano finished serving an 80-game suspension after testing positive last August for a performance-enhancing drug. While not ideal, he is now fully available, and there wouldn’t be any ramifications for the Brewers.
Laureano has spent all five of his big league seasons in Oakland and has a career .260 batting average with a .786 OPS, and a 117 OPS+. In 2022, he is slashing .239/.326/.355 over 44 games with an OPS+ of 101 and two home runs. He is, however, mashing left-handed pitching, having logged a .966 OPS.
Laureano’s strikeout rate is at 20%, and his walk rate is just under 9% this season. His advanced batting metrics from Baseball Savant don’t exactly leap off the page, but they aren’t bad either. For the most part, he is hanging around, or better than, league average in most categories, including hard-hit rate, barrel rate, and average exit velocity.
Defensively, Laureano would have the smoothest transition of the three players discussed in this article as he has spent a majority of his time these past two years in centerfield. By Defensive Runs Saved, he has been an above-average defender over his career.
Laureano also comes with two years of team control remaining — which we know the Milwaukee Brewers covet — and is playing out 2022 on a $2.45 million contract.