Ramon Laureano's Scorching Hot Start Is Putting Pressure On Other Padres Stars

Seven games into the season, the San Diego Padres ranked dead last in the MLB in runs scored. 

That's not the stat fans expected to see, especially with an offense featuring all-stars like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Jackson Merrill. Despite the firepower in San Diego, the bats have come out of the gate extremely cold... just like they were last year when the team was eliminated in the NL Wild Card Round.

Not only are the Padres last in runs, they are also last in hits, home runs, OBP, SLG, and OPS. They rank 22nd in walks and 29th in batting average. The Friars are not scoring because they are not getting on base, hitting for average, or hitting for power. Their offense is failing in every element of the game.

Not everyone on the offense is struggling, however. Ramon Laureano is playing some of the best baseball of his career. 

Laureano has been good for a while now. He had an .832 OPS and 1.3 bWAR in 67 games with the Braves in 2024, and followed that up with an impressive 2025 season, which saw him slash .281/.342/.512 with 3.8 bWAR split between Baltimore and San Diego. It was the best season of his career, but 2026 has been an even better start for the veteran outfielder. 

So, what is behind Laureano's hot start, and what is he doing right that the rest of the team is doing wrong? 

Padres Breakdown: Ramon Laureano's Scorching Hot Start

Finding the Sweet Spot

One number that jumps out from Laureano's Baseball Savant page is his launch-angle sweet-spot percentage of 52.9%. That ranks in the 94th percentile in the MLB. That means that the veteran outfielder's bat path and swing plane are on point, and he's producing contact at the ideal time in his swing. That explains the .318 batting average. The xBA backs it up, as his expected average of .308 almost perfectly matches the actual production.

Laureano's also boasting a barrel rate of 17.6%, placing him in the 85th percentile of the league. That has helped raise his xSLG to .677, even better than his current .636 slugging percentage. Laureano has hit two of the Padres' three home runs in 2026, and his barrel rate is a big reason why.

Laureano is hitting the ball hard, barreling it up at an above-average rate, and hitting the ball in the air consistently. It's almost surprising that his .984 OPS isn't higher.

Taking A Page Out of Ramon Laureano's Book

The Padres, as a team, rank dead last in barrels. In fact, San Diego only has seven barrels this season. Laureano is responsible for three of those. It's never a good sign when one player accounts for half of his team's production, but that has almost been the case for San Diego. The Braves already have 25 barrels, more than three times as many as the Friars.

What is interesting is that San Diego's 41.3% hard-hit rate is fine, 11th best in the league so far. While they might not be barreling up the ball, they are at least hitting it hard. The team's expected stats are also significantly better than their actual stats, so that's another silver lining. San Diego's xBA as a team is .239 (17th) compared to their actual team average of .192 (29th). Their xSLG of .348 is still not great, ranking 27th in the league, but it's still nearly 60 points higher than their actual team SLG of .290, the worst in baseball. 

Ultimately, this team is going to need to take a page out of Laureano's book and start barreling the ball up more. Right now, the Padres 5.2% weak contact rate is the seventh-highest in the league. They are topping the ball 34.1% of the time, the fourth-most often, while they make solid contact just 6% of the time (13th). 

Improving contact quality is easier said than done, but there's more than enough firepower in Craig Stammen's lineup to make it happen. Ramon Laureano is leading by example, but he can't keep the offense afloat on his own.