A’s call up Seth Brown to replace suspended Ramon Laureano

Roster move

The Oakland A’s lost a star player on Friday when outfielder Ramon Laureano was suspended 80 games for a performance-enhancing drug violation. Now they’ve made a roster move to fill Laureano’s spot.

The A’s announced that they’ve recalled Seth Brown from Triple-A Las Vegas.

The rookie Brown already spent most of this season helping out in Oakland’s outfield, playing 79 games in part-time duty, but he was sent down last weekend after the team acquired several new veteran hitters.

The lefty slugger racked up a dozen homers over 213 plate appearances, including a 472-foot blast that’s currently the team’s longest of the summer. That dinger rate (17.75 plate appearances per homer) is bested only by Matt Olson among A’s hitters. However, Brown also carries one of the highest strikeout rates on the club.

• Brown, 2021: .199/.277/.435, 95 wRC+, 12 HR, 9.4% BB, 27.2% Ks, .322 xwOBA

Despite the low batting average, Brown’s overall line rates around league-average due to his power and a solid walk rate. On defense he plays hard in the outfield corners and has significantly positive advanced metrics — it’s a small-sample but the eyeball test doesn’t disagree. Statcast rates his sprint speed and his 90-foot sprint time as second-fastest on the team behind only newcomer Starling Marte, and actually faster than Laureano.

Entering the season, Brown ranked No. 18 on our Community Prospect List, thanks partly to an impressive MLB debut stint in 2019.

Here’s the updated roster, with the injury report below.

Injury report:

• RHP Trevor Rosenthal, OUT FOR YEAR, entire body (thoracic outlet, hip labrum)
• RHP Mike Fiers, 60-day IL, elbow (no structural damage; shut down for July)
• UT Chad Pinder, 10-day IL, hamstring (likely out thru mid-Aug at least)
• RHP James Kaprielian, 10-day IL, shoulder (hopefully not too serious)