San Diego Padres All-Star Ryan O’Hearn spoke about the importance of outfielder Ramon Laureano and what his injury will mean for the Friars going forward.

Laureano has been one of the Padres’ best hitters since arriving from the Baltimore Orioles at the trade deadline with O’Hearn, posting a .812 OPS since his arrival with nine home runs. He fractured his finger against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, and will be out at least through the Wild Card round in the postseason.

“It sucks,” O’Hearn said. “Everybody here has seen what kind of player he is and how much he has produced. I’ve been a witness to it all year long. It’s tough, because you get to this point in the season, you want to go to postseason at full strength, and a guy like that — he was hitting the middle of the order, he has been electric in the outfield. … A tough pill to swallow. It sucks. But in this game, injuries happen. You got a lot of good players, so someone’s going to step up and go get the wild card.”

Laureano has a .854 OPS on the year, his highest since he was with the Oakland Athletics in 2019, and also tied his career high for home runs with 24, which he also set in 2019 with the A’s.

O’Hearn hasn’t quite performed as well as his longtime teammate since coming to San Diego, however he has recently picked up the pace as far as offensive production goes. The All-Star has a hit in each of his last six appearances, and has multiple hits in four of those games.

Manager Mike Shildt spoke about potential replacements for Laureano in left, and pointed towards designated hitter Gavin Sheets — who spent most of his time in left before Laureano’s arrival — and Bryce Johnson.

“I would expect [Sheets] to get the majority of the opportunity there, but Bryce has played very well also,” Shildt said. “So, we’ll see. We’ve still got time to figure this out.”

The Padres have already clinched their spot in the Wild Card round, and will look to claim an upset victory over the Chicago Cubs come October so they can get Laureano back. Before that, however, they have one final regular season series to play against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which begins Friday at 6:40 p.m. PT.

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