SAN DIEGO — They wore yellow and pink as they exited the clubhouse and trotted up the dugout steps onto the field at Petco Park on Friday afternoon. They had only just landed in this city, their lives turned over by a deadline-day trade from Baltimore to San Diego.

As Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano grasped the sudden change in their situation — a late Thursday trade that sent the two Orioles players to the Padres in exchange for six prospects — they stayed close to one another. In the outfield, as the first batting practice group took hacks, O’Hearn and Laureano took in their surroundings.

They had played at Petco Park before, but that was as a member of the visiting team. In his introductory press conference with local media, O’Hearn referenced his 2023 visit here, when the stadium was filled and rocking on a midweek night. “Very excited to play in this type of atmosphere,” O’Hearn said.

They said all the right things.

Laureano expressed his excitement to join a club with World Series aspirations. “It’s a legit ball club,” he said to a group of crowding television cameras.

Off to the side, though, in the dugout away from the throng of reporters in the home clubhouse, Laureano and O’Hearn reflected on what they expected to be a season of World Series aspirations where they had been only a day prior. Neither of them joined the Orioles on the team’s flight to Chicago; they stayed behind in Baltimore, waiting for confirmation of what they suspected must come next as a result of a disappointing season.

“You understand the situation,” Laureano said. “I’ve been in the league long enough to understand the situation.”

Added O’Hearn: “You try to prepare as best as possible. There’s no script for it or anything like that.”

They each received phone calls Thursday afternoon from Orioles general manager Mike Elias. They heard the news, then prepared for a whirlwind transition. Laureano flew to San Diego late Thursday night. O’Hearn followed early Friday morning. By 2 p.m., they were at Petco Park, introducing themselves to a host of new faces, hoping to jell with a new group only hours after leaving their old city behind.

So they ran out of the dugout onto the field for pregame stretches. Laureano reached out his hand to introduce himself to infielder Xander Bogaerts. O’Hearn clapped his old-and-new teammate on the back.

Two days earlier, when Laureano and O’Hearn still called themselves Orioles, their teammates in Baltimore packed for Chicago after a 9-8 loss to the Blue Jays. But before the rest of their teammates filed out to a bus and then a plane, a moment of calm allowed for a wake of sorts.

On their last night together, about 10 players rolled their chairs over to the corner of the clubhouse at Camden Yards, where O’Hearn’s locker rested in one corner. They sat and debriefed on what they knew was about to end.

“It’s a quick goodbye. It sucks. But a lot of hugs, a lot of, ‘We’ll see you down the road,’” O’Hearn said. “That last day before we left, I had an idea, obviously, that I was going to get moved, and about 10 guys pulled up a chair in front of my locker and we hung out, talked shop for a while and said our goodbyes. That’s how it goes.”

It became apparent to O’Hearn about two weeks before the trade deadline that he would be dealt. It didn’t stop him from giving his all every night. He enjoyed the All-Star Game knowing it might be one of his final times wearing Orioles gear, and then he returned to his Baltimore teammates as motivated as ever.

Still, the standings, the time of year, they all pointed against the Orioles making a late run to the postseason. The putrid beginning of the season rendered those dreams moot.

“The way it was lining up, my agent reached out to me and let me know, ‘Hey, this is what’s probably happening,’” O’Hearn said. “So I had some time to kind of understand and comprehend.”

Laureano understood it, too. He was in the midst of a career year, sporting an .884 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Even with a club option for 2026, he was aware Baltimore might turn his present-day value into a future focus.

“This is the nature of the business, and if I was the GM, I would trade everybody,” Laureano said. “Now they have a better franchise with all these prospects they got.”

But as to what went wrong in Baltimore, there wasn’t an easy answer. They pointed to the injuries, and they have a case. The Orioles have had 26 players land on the injured list at various times this year — enough players to fill a roster.

“Starting pitching injuries, and just a tough start, man,” O’Hearn said. “Baseball is baseball. It’s hard. You have some bad breaks, and when you get in a rut, it’s hard to dig yourself out of it and just find that magic we had the last few years. By the time we got it turned around, it just seemed like it was too late.”

So Elias pulled the plug. He traded nine players away for a host of prospects, most of whom are in the lower reaches of the minor leagues and won’t directly help the 2026 iteration of the Orioles. As for the 2025 version, they must live without several key players, O’Hearn and Laureano among them.

Their time in Baltimore won’t leave them, though. Especially not for O’Hearn, who experienced a career resurrection after the Kansas City Royals traded him for cash ahead of the 2023 season. In O’Hearn’s two and a half seasons, he rose from an afterthought to an All-Star, and the fan base embraced him for the way he carried himself on and off the field.

“It was tough, for sure,” O’Hearn said. “That’s a group and a team and a city that’s close to my heart. Spent a few really amazing years there, and I got nothing but love for all the people in that building. Obviously, there were some high expectations in spring training, and we didn’t live up to those.”

This is the result — they sported pink and yellow on Friday night, the vibrant shades of San Diego’s City Connect uniform. They introduced themselves to their new teammates and tried to set up their lockers just so. They made do with the situation — Laureano drank Mountain Valley water out of an aluminum bottle, not the glass variety he prefers, because it was all the Padres had available on short notice.

Perhaps soon San Diego will feel like home. For at least the moment, though, thoughts of the Orioles lingered. They failed to make the postseason this year. But the group they just left?

“100%,” Laureano said, “they will be a playoff team, for sure, next year.”

Then he smiled, put on his Padres hat and nodded. More than likely, he’ll be on a playoff team this year. So off he went, into the future — an Oriole no more.