The Athletics shed most of their veteran leadership before the 2022 MLB season began, but one of the few holdovers was outfielder Ramón Laureano.
Unfortunately for the young A's team, they didn't have Laureano's services until May 8 while he finished serving a PED suspension that rolled over from last season.
Just how important is Laureano to a rebuilding A's team with the second-worst record in baseball? The evidence was crystal clear in Oakland's 10-5 win Saturday in Cleveland.
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With the A's riding a 10-game losing streak and trailing halfway through the game against the Cleveland Guardians, Laureano had seen enough. It was time to light a fire under his teammates before they lost an 11th straight game.
FOX Sports cameras caught the 27-year-old screaming in the dugout during Saturday's game. A short time later, Laureano was ejected from the game, so there was some thought that the outburst was connected to his departure from the game.
But after the A's exploded for five runs in the seventh inning and beat the Guardians to end their skid, the story behind Laureano's actions came out.
"Ramon is just trying to fire up the guys, telling the guys 'Hey, we're still in this fight. It's not over. So keep on fighting, keep throwing punches,' " A's starter Frankie Montas told reporters in Cleveland after the game. "And that's what the guys went out there and did.
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"I feel like we all needed to hear that. We all needed to hear somebody say 'Hey, this is enough. Enough is enough.' He was the guy that fired everybody up, so that's what it took."
First-year A's manager Mark Kotsay explained after the game that Laureano was ejected because he argued with umpires about a perceived quick-pitch by a Guardians pitcher to Elvis Andrus. And the A's had argued for a balk to be called earlier in the game, and the umps had enough when Laureano started yelling.
When asked about Laureano's dugout speech, Kotsay was all in favor of it.
"He had an emotional little message for the club before that seventh inning," Kotsay told reporters in Cleveland. "Probably wasn't seen on TV. Maybe it was. But that's the Ramon I've always talked about. My biggest thing is letting guys be themselves and that's Ramon being himself. His energy, his passion, his frustrations kind of came out and I think that was heard loud and clear in that dugout."
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Laureano is used to being on A's teams that are competing for an American League playoff spot. This year's team now has a 21-40 record and sits in last place in the AL West. Barring a miraculous turnaround, there will be no postseason games in Oakland this year, but that doesn't mean the team doesn't need to play with some fire and pride.
That's all Laureano wanted to see from his teammates, and his speech worked. Seth Brown capped the seventh-inning eruption with a grand slam to right, Stephen Vogt homered in the eighth and Christian Bethancourt and Sean Murphy both went deep in the ninth inning to seal the win.
Fiery speech. Check. Home runs. Check. A's win. Check. Mission accomplished for Laureano.