The San Diego Padres lost Ramon Laureano early, but he's talking about a long-shot comeback.
The San Diego Padres have sorely missed outfielder Ramon Laureano, and in some ways they’re still struggling to replace him. The Padres have gotten excellent performances from players like Samad Taylor, but it’s not the same has having Laureano’s versatility and power hitting.
Laureano has some regrets about trying to play through the hip injury he sustained back in April, when he made a diving catch in Pittsburgh.
“Something happened there,” Laureano said of that April 8 game in a piece written by Dennis Lin of The Athletic. “And I was like, ‘Screw it. Let’s just continue to play ball.’”
A subsequent trip that took through the Padres at altitude in Denver and Mexico City aggravated the injury to the point where he couldn’t play with it. The diagnosis proved more serious than expected as he tore his labrum, and now Laureano has a slim chance of making it back by Oct. 5.
“He’s going to leave everything out there for the boys,” said right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., who Lin described as a close friend. “That’s who Ramón is.”
Laureano is a little harsher on hismelf, however.
“I have no idea why I kept playing,” Laureano said. “I’m such an idiot. Stupid, really. That’s some stupid [expletive] right there.”
His Padres career so far has been a hard-luck story and then some. Last year it was a shattered index finger that took the outfielder out for the playoffs, and he’s hoping the Padres will re-sign him for next year, although that feels very up in the air right now.
“They traded for me, and I didn’t even play a playoff game with them,” Laureano said. “Hopefully, I can if they sign me back. [I should be] stronger, faster and twitchier when I hit.”
Until then he’s become an observer from afar, just like the rest of us.
“I look at the standings a lot. How the D-Backs are doing. I watch D-Backs’ games, too,” Laureano said. “It’s like I’m a fan, you know?”
Unlike last year, though, there’s still a chance he could return. The finger issue was an automatic no-go, he stated, but there is a long-shot scenario where he makes it back.
“I’m not ruling it out,” Laureano said. “Every day, I’m working, dreaming about being in the playoffs and performing. But to make it more specific, the chances of me playing are, like, less than 5 percent, the way I have to do all my (rehab) and what the doctor told me to do.”
