Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Ramon Laureano quietly becoming best offensive piece for struggling Orioles

Expectations were high for the Baltimore Orioles entering 2025. The team was coming off two straight playoff berths, and the roster has a ton of appealing, presumably ascending talent on it. Baltimore was projected to win around 88 games.

But sometimes reality bites. The Orioles are floundering at 36-47, last place in the AL East. Only the White Sox and Athletics — two teams that are hardly trying — are breaking Baltimore's fall. Is it possible for a cartoon bird to cry?

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Bully to you if you saw this collapse coming. And extra credit if you figured that journeyman outfielder Ramon Laureano might become the team's best offensive piece.

Laureano has bounced around in his eight MLB seasons; Baltimore is his fourth stop. He was useful down the stretch in Atlanta last year (.296/.327/.505, 10 homers in 67 games), which led to the two-year contract with the Orioles. He's rocking a .273/.348/.515 slash for Baltimore, with 10 homers and three steals. The 144 OPS+ is a career-best, and tied for first on the team (along with Ryan O'Hearn, another surprise).

Imagine predicting all this before the season — that Baltimore's most efficient hitter wouldn't be Gunnar Henderson or Adley Rutschman or even Jackson Holliday, but rather, the overlooked Laureano. You'd be laughed out of the room.

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Laureano has been especially useful since returning from an ankle sprain, scoring 16 runs and knocking in 15 over the last 20 games. He normally bats in the middle of Baltimore's order. His platoon split has been out of whack in 2025 — he's crushing righties and slumping against lefties — though that's not his usual trend. And heck, if it continues, most of the world is right-handed, anyway.

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Baltimore could have a roster glut when Tyler O'Neill gets healthy, but that's not today's problem. It's also possible Laureano could be a trade target, given Baltimore isn't contending. We'll worry about that down the road. For now, let's not ignore a productive player. Laureano is available in over 90% of Yahoo leagues, and is approved for immediate pickup.

As for other widely-available hitters of note:

Cam Smith, 3B/OF, Astros (43% rostered on Yahoo)

It broke Houston's heart to trade away Kyle Tucker, but the improvement of Smith is helping to sooth that wound. Houston remained patient with Smith despite some early growing pains and rewards have followed: Smith has a swanky .305/.370/.451 slash over the past 47 games. The power has been slower to develop but it's coming, too — Smith has four homers in his last 12 games. There's a reason why he was a rated prospect on everyone's board before the season.

Nolan Gorman, 2B/3B, Cardinals (5%)

Your roster build needs to match Gorman's profile — he's consistently batted around .222 for his entire career and he's an occasional base-stealer. But power comes standard with Gorman — he's homered seven times in 56 games this year, and averages 29 home runs for every 162 games played. Gorman grabs two positions of Yahoo eligibility, and the Cardinals will regularly DH him as well, not wanting to lose his punch.

Otto Lopez, 2B/SS, Marlins (29%)

We often talk about Miami as a half-offense — you can trust the upper half, and you run from the bottom half. Lopez is part of the good piece, working on a 10-game hitting streak and driving in runs in his last eight starts. He's most often slotted as the No. 3 batter, a decent place to be, working after Xavier Edwards and Agustin Ramirez. His Baseball Savant page is a sea of endorsement red; the batted-ball metrics suggest Lopez should be batting .302 and slugging .498. He's already worth rostering, and things could get even better.

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Chandler Simpson, OF, Rays (33%)

We all know Simpson is fast and eager on the bases (21 steals), but it's unfair to call him a one-trick pony — he's also batting .290. He rarely hits the ball with any authority but at least Simpson realizes contact is his best friend — his strikeout rate is a tiny 9.6%, allowing him to get the ball in play and let his speed do the work. The next act for Simpson is to improve his pitch recognition and OBP skills, which could eventually lead to a promotion in the lineup. But so long as he keeps running this aggressively and keeps the batting average above code, we'll accept that we have to cover for him in the power categories. It's another speciality play, but some rosters will welcome a player dominating these two columns.