Ramon, we hardly knew ye. The Braves non-tendered him shortly after the season ended, rewarding him for the best offensive performance of his major league career with a cold-eyed acknowledgment that he was never gonna do that again. Still, this is a retrospective, not a prospective, so it’s worth celebrating Laureano’s season, which however unrepeatable was nevertheless pretty great.

I do owe him a Coke and an apology. Despite his reputation and track record, his defense was less than sparkling in the early going, and by August I was calling for his release. Cooler heads prevailed, though, and in the last two months of the season he started nearly every night while hitting .311/.347/.522. He did it with a .389 BABIP, admittedly – plus a 4% walk rate that would’ve made Michael Harris blush – but he did it nevertheless, and his bat was one of the more important pieces of duct tape holding together our leaky offense during the stretch run.

Laureano’s often overachieved over the course of his career. He was originally a 16th-round draft pick by the Astros out of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, a school for which he’s essentially their only noteworthy draftee. (The only other guy with a notable career is Jason Dickson, who was an All-Star as a rookie starting pitcher, but who blew out his shoulder shortly afterwards and was done after 397 innings pitched.)

While he was hitting .227 at Double-A, the Astros traded him to the A’s for Brandon Bailey, a live-armed pitching prospect who eventually threw a total of 7 1/3 innings in the majors. The A’s clearly helped Laureano develop, as he had a great half-year in Triple-A in 2018 then kept on hitting during his call-up. His next season was a full year of more of the same: a .356 wOBA with plus centerfield defense made him nearly a four-win player.

But he seemed to be seriously selling out for power, as his walk rate sharply fell from 9.1% to 5.6%, while his homers spiked up, setting a career high with 24; he never again hit more than 14. And while his walk rate went back up during the abbreviated season in 2020, it fell back to the 6-7% range for the rest of his career, while his slugging fell at the same time as his BABIP, which had been .354 his first two years, but was .287 for the following three years. And now that he’s 30, his defense has turned downward as well.

He was mired in the worst season of his career this past May, hitting .143 when the Guardians released him, and he had to accept a minor league deal from the Braves two days later. But after just a couple of weeks, Michael Harris suffered a hamstring strain and Laureano got his callup, becoming one of the Braves’ most important bench contributors and the latest example of Alex Anthopoulos’s wizardry with fourth outfielders.

At this stage of his career, Laureano’s starting days are likely behind him. He’s BABIP-dependent to a fault and his glove is merely adequate, but he’s still capable of helping a team that needs a warm body. I hope he continues to have many more productive years as a role player. He sure was great for us.