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Twins Designate Matt Bowman For Assignment

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The Twins announced that right-hander Jhoan Duran has been reinstated from the injured list, as had been reported on earlier this week. In a corresponding move, right-hander Matt Bowman has been designated for assignment.

Bowman, 33 next month, signed a minor league deal with the Twins in the offseason. He was added to the 40-man roster just over two weeks ago, after throwing six scoreless frames in Triple-A, and has since pitched 7 2/3 innings over five appearances in the majors.

He only allowed two earned runs in that time, which is why his earned run average looks nice right now at 2.35. However, the underlying metrics have been less impressive. He has six strikeouts and four walks, leading to respective rates of 19.4% and 12.9% thus far. His 57.9% ground ball rate is strong but he wasn’t going to maintain a .056 batting average on balls in play nor a 90.9% strand rate. That’s why his 5.64 FIP and 4.38 SIERA are much higher than his ERA in this small sample.

Since Bowman is out of options, the Twins had to remove him from the 40-man roster entirely in order to open an active roster spot for Duran. They will now have one week to trade Bowman or pass him through waivers. If the latter scenario were to come to pass, he has over three years of service time, giving him the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency instead. However, he doesn’t have five years of service, meaning he would have to forfeit the remainder of this $925K salary to return to the open market.

Elbow injuries, including Tommy John surgery, prevented Bowman from pitching in official game action from 2020 to 2022. He was able to return to the mound last year, tossing 58 2/3 innings for the Triple-A club of the Yankees with a 3.99 ERA. He struck out 22.6% of batters faced in that time while giving out walks at an 11.7% rate and getting grounders at an 51.9% clip. He also tossed four innings for the Yanks in the majors but was outrighted after the season, which allowed him to sign with the Twins.

Rockies Promote Jordan Beck

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April 30: As expect, the Rockies announced that they have selected Beck’s contract and placed Jones on the injured list, retroactive to April 29, due to a low back strain. To open a 40-man spot for Beck, they transferred left-hander Lucas Gilbreath to the 60-day IL. Gilbreath underwent Tommy John surgery in March of last year. He began a rehab assignment a week ago but only recorded one out while tossing 18 pitches and hasn’t pitched since. Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post says Gilbreath is having shoulder problems. It’s unclear what his next steps are but he’ll now be ineligible to be activated until late May.

April 29: The Rockies are calling up top outfield prospect Jordan Beck for his big league debut, as first reported by Ben McKee of GoVols 24/7. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Rox will need to make at least one corresponding transaction and possibly two. Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette reports that fellow outfielder Nolan Jones is likely headed to the injured list. Jones has been bothered by a back injury recently. He returned to the lineup Sunday but exited the game early due to continued discomfort. The Rockies are off today but open a three-game set in Miami tomorrow. McKee writes that Beck is currently traveling to Miami to join the big league club.

Beck, 23, was the No. 38 overall draft pick out of the University of Tennessee in 2022 and entered the season ranked 81st among all big league prospects, per MLB.com. He’s gotten out to a brilliant start in Triple-A Albuquerque, hitting .307/.405/.594 with five homers, ten doubles, two triples, five steals (in five attempts), a 14.9% walk rate and a 19.8% strikeout rate in 121 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, he’s been 40% better than league average after weighting for his home park and league run-scoring environment.

It’s a strong showing for Beck and a particularly encouraging development in terms of his hit tool; he’s posted big offensive numbers at every level since being drafted, but he fanned in an alarming 31.8% of his 223 plate appearances in his first taste of Double-A last year. He moved up a rung on the minor league ladder regardless, and a month or so into the 2024 season that looks like it was the right call.

Improvement to his hit tool is vital for Beck, as scouting reports have tended to tout his above-average to plus power and average or better speed while simultaneously expressing concerns about his contact abilities. In ranking Beck fourth among Rox farmhands, Baseball America noted that he has a particular penchant for swinging through velocity at the top of the zone but otherwise tends to make good swing decisions, mitigating his contact issues on pitches thrown to other areas.

As for the 25-year-old Jones, he’s had a nightmare start to the 2024 season. In 103 plate appearances, he’s slashing just .170/.243/.277 with a 36% strikeout rate on the season. Jones impressed with a standout .297/.389/.542 showing as a rookie last year, and while some degree of regression was always fair to expect based on a .401 BABIP and 29.7% strikeout rate, this level of step back was generally unexpected. Jones is actually making more contact on pitches within the zone and chasing off the plate less often, but he’s seen his called-strike percentage balloon from 19.9% to 25.3%. His overall swing rate is down from 41.5% to 39%, and the more passive approach seems to have led to an excess of called strikes putting him behind in the count.

Assuming Beck does indeed get the call, it’ll be his first MLB look and it’ll come with what should be a legitimate chance to win a long-term role in the outfield. Jones looks to have left field locked down — assuming he can right the ship once activated — and Brenton Doyle is in the midst of a breakout performance in center field (albeit with some significant BABIP help of his own, at an unsustainable .446). However, right field is still largely up for grabs. Michael Toglia entered the season as the primary right fielder but has since been optioned to Triple-A. Sean Bouchard and Hunter Goodman have both gotten looks there but neither has established himself as an everyday player. Beck has experience across all three outfield positions though, so he could fill a variety of roles if he hits well enough to keep himself in the big leagues.

If Beck is in the majors to stay, he’d be on track for free agency following the 2030 season and would be arbitration-eligible four times as a Super Two player, beginning in the 2026-27 offseason. Future optional assignments could alter both trajectories.

Cardinals Select Kyle Leahy

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The Cardinals have selected the contract of right-hander Kyle Leahy and added him to the active roster as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Tigers, reports Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. Lefty Drew Rom has been transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move.

Leahy, 26, made his big league debut last season but pitched just 1 2/3 innings, yielding four runs in that brief look. The Cards passed him throughout outright waivers unclaimed following the season and retained the right-hander, whom they selected in the 17th round of the 2018 draft.

The Cards moved Leahy from a starting role to the bullpen in 2023 but didn’t get the desired results; he posted a 6.26 ERA in 83 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level (four starts, 42 relief appearances). He’s posted a similarly unpalatable 5.84 mark through his first 12 2/3 frames this year, but Leahy is sporting much-improved strikeout and walk rates of 26.4% and 7.5%, respectively. He’s already been tagged for four long balls, but if he can curtail that trend, the blend of missed bats, strong command and an above-average 45.5% ground-ball rate is interesting.

This is the second of three option years for Leahy. He has a good bit of work to do in order to carve out some staying power on the 40-man roster, but he’ll get his first opportunity of the 2024 season to do so today. If he ends up sticking on the roster, he’d be controllable for at least six seasons.

As for the 24-year-old Rom, he’s been sidelined by a biceps issue all season. Jones reported last week that the southpaw was ticketed for a visit with Dr. Keith Meister to further assess the injury. The results of that visit haven’t been made clear just yet, but given that he was still seeking additional opinions in late April, Rom’s move to the 60-day IL shouldn’t come as a major surprise. He’s still clearly feeling discomfort, so even if that visit revealed no additional injuries of note, the southpaw likely isn’t close to returning. His original IL placement was retroactive to March 25, and the “60-day” term includes all the time already spent on the shelf. He’ll be eligible to return in late May.

The Cardinals acquired Rom, Cesar Prieto and Zack Showalter from the Orioles last summer in the deadline deal sending Jack Flaherty to Baltimore. Rom made his MLB debut with St. Louis in the second half of the ’23 season but was rocked for 30 earned runs in 33 2/3 innings across eight starts. The former fourth-round pick has a career 4.75 ERA in 134 2/3 Triple-A frames. If healthy, he’d have been among the Cardinals’ depth options in the rotation to begin the season, but it’s not yet clear when he’ll be a realistic option for them.

White Sox Sign Jared Walsh To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox have signed free agent first baseman Jared Walsh to a minor league deal, per the team. The ISE client will head to the club’s spring training complex in Arizona for the time being and eventually be assigned to Triple-A Charlotte. Walsh made the Rangers’ Opening Day roster this season and got out to a hot start, but he was cut loose when he fell into a slump as Texas was nearing Nathaniel Lowe’s activation from the injured list.

Walsh’s return to the big leagues was a welcome sight, as some rather ominous health troubles clouded his future within the game not long ago. The Angels placed Walsh on the injured list with persistent headaches and insomnia early last season, and the slugger detailed his struggles in an interview with The Athletic’s Sam Blum at the time, stating: “It’s been hell. Not knowing what’s going on, not understanding what’s happening with my body….And not being able to get answers, not being able to figure out why I can’t do basic tasks. It’s been pretty concerning for me.”

Walsh also told the Orange County Register’s Doug Padilla that the neurological issues he battled early last season actually had been bothering him for more than a year, meaning he was going through that battle while simultaneously trying to play through thoracic outlet symptoms that eventually necessitated surgery. Walsh acknowledged that he seems to have “found some answers” after multiple visits with specialists, but an exact diagnosis was never made public.

Given all he’s gone through in recent seasons, it’s encouraging simply to see Walsh healthy enough to continue pursuing his big league career. The now-30-year-old slugger broke out with a hefty .280/.331/.531 slash and 38 home runs in 176 games with the Angels from 2020-21. His production plummeted in the years since that breakout, due in no small part to those persistent and worrying health troubles. Since Opening Day 2022, Walsh carries a .200/.263/.352 batting line in 630 trips to the plate.

Walsh had a nice spring with the Rangers, swatting three homers and slashing .250/.365/.458 overall in 57 plate appearances. His 14% walk rate was encouraging, but the veteran’s 33.3% strikeout rate was an obvious flaw. His contact issues persisted into the regular season. Walsh began the season 10-for-30 with a homer and two doubles but went just 2-for-23 with 11 punchouts thereafter. He fanned 21 times in his 60 Rangers plate appearances (35%).

The White Sox have Andrew Vaughn getting everyday reps at first base, but the former top prospect simply hasn’t produced this season (.180/.252/.230, 42 wRC+) and more broadly has not emerged as the high-end offensive force the Sox envisioned when drafting him with the third overall pick in 2019. Vaughn popped a career-high 21 homers last season but is a lifetime .251/.311/.408 hitter since his 2020 debut. He’s essentially been a league-average bat, which doesn’t mesh well with his lack of defensive value and lack of speed. This year’s 27.9% strikeout rate is a career-worst, as are most of his batted-ball metrics on Statcast (e.g. exit velocity, barrel rate, hard-hit rate).

If things reach a tipping point, it’s feasible that Vaughn could be optioned to Charlotte himself, with Gavin Sheets sliding from right field to first base and Chicago giving Tommy Pham, Robbie Grossman and/or Rafael Ortega increased reps in the outfield. Walsh could hit his way into that first base/DH mix as well, but for now he’ll get a tune-up at the Sox’ spring facility. It’s been ten days since he was designated for assignment and two weeks since he last appeared in a game.

Marlins Outright Kyle Tyler

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Marlins right-hander Kyle Tyler went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville, per the transaction log at MLB.com. As a player who has been outrighted multiple times in his career, Tyler has the ability to choose minor league free agency.

The 27-year-old may nevertheless decide to stick with Miami. The Marlins have shuttled through a number of long relievers (i.e. Tyler, Kent Emanuel, Matt Andriese) as their bullpen has shouldered a heavy load in the season’s first few weeks. That gives pitchers on the fringes of the roster a few days of major league pay.

Tyler was selected onto the MLB club on April 20. He spent a week on the roster, appearing in one game. He tossed two innings of one-run ball in his first major league action since 2022. Tyler has pitched twice for Jacksonville, allowing four runs through five frames. He has struck out six while walking a pair. The Oklahoma product has tossed 44 1/3 innings over parts of three Triple-A seasons, pitching to a 5.68 ERA.

Angels Designate Aaron Hicks For Assignment, Select Cole Tucker

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The Angels announced a series of roster moves today, recalling right-hander Davis Daniel from Triple-A Salt Lake and selecting the contract of infielder Cole Tucker. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Zac Kristofak to Salt Lake and designated outfielder Aaron Hicks for assignment.

Hicks, 34, was a pretty low risk pick-up for the Angels, at least from a financial perspective. His contract is still being paid by the Yankees, since they released him last year. The Angels added him to their roster but would only have to pay Hicks the prorated league minimum, with that amount subtracted from what the Yankees are paying.

There was a decent chance of them seeing a positive return on that investment, since Hicks seemed to bounce back with the Orioles last year. The O’s picked him up after the Yanks let him go, then Hicks went on to hit .275/.381/.425 in his time with Baltimore. That production translated to a wRC+ of 129 and Hicks also stole six bases in six tries.

But he’s looked far worse since donning an Angels uniform. Through 18 games this year, he’s produced an ugly line of .140/.222/.193 while striking out in 36.5% of his 63 plate appearances. His 9.5% walk rate is a bit above league average but below his career rate and even last year’s clip.

As Hicks has struggled, other outfielders have been in decent form. Both Mike Trout and Taylor Ward have been healthy and productive so far this season, while Jo Adell seems to finally be enjoying his long-awaited breakout.

Adell, 25, was selected 10th overall in 2017 and was a top 100 prospect on his way up the minor league ladder, but he struggled badly with strikeouts in his attempts to establish himself in the big leagues. He got sporadic playing time in the majors from 2020 to 2023 but was punched out in 35.4% of his plate appearances while hitting .214/.259/.366. This year, however, he’s hit .327/.382/.592 so far for a wRC+ of 174. Some regression is certainly forthcoming since he won’t be able to maintain a .382 batting average on balls in play, but he’s only striking out at a 23.6% clip so far this year.

The Angels are seemingly going to ride the hot hand and go with Adell next to Ward and Trout. Mickey Moniak is hitting a dismal .143/.200/.214 on the year but his .189 BABIP will surely come up over time. He’s striking out 30% of the time but that’s actually an improvement over last year’s 35% rate, when he rode a .389 BABIP to a line of .280/.307/.495. Since he’s younger than Hicks and comes with three additional years of cheap control, in addition to being out of options, he will hang onto the fourth outfielder job while Hicks is bumped off the roster.

By getting rid of Hicks, the Angels will add to their infield by selecting Tucker. Anthony Rendon and Michael Stefanic are on the injured list while Brandon Drury and Miguel Sanó have each missed a few games due to minor injuries in the past week. Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto and Luis Rengifo have been the club’s three healthy infielders getting regular playing time, while Ehire Adrianza has picked up some playing time with Drury and Sanó banged up.

Coming into the season, the 27-year-old Tucker was in a similar position as Adell, a former first-round pick who hadn’t lived up to the hype. Selected 24th overall by the Pirates in 2014, Tucker has a batting line of just .216/.266/.318 in 479 major league plate appearances, scattered over the past five seasons.

He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners back in January but was granted his release back in March. He tells reporters today, including Sam Blum of The Athletic and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, that the Mariners offered him a coaching position after he was reassigned to minor league camp. But he wasn’t ready to quit playing yet and secured a minor league deal with the Angels.

He reported to the club’s Triple-A squad in Salt Lake and has been in great form of late. He’s made 42 plate appearances over 10 games, drawing eight walks and striking out nine times for rates of 19% and 21.4%, respectively. His .313/.439/.469 batting line translates to a wRC+ of 132, even in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

That’s a fairly small sample size relative to Tucker’s larger career struggles. In addition to his aforementioned major league work, he hit a tepid .243/.350/.363 in the minors over the 2021 to 2023 period. Regardless of his offensive abilities, Tucker can provide the Angels with some cover all over the diamond. He has played all four infield positions in his career and spent some time in the outfield as well. As mentioned, the club has various moving parts with the infield injuries, so Tucker can bounce around as needed.

He is out of options and will have to stick on the active roster or else be removed from the 40-man entirely if he gets squeezed from the club’s plans down the road. But if he manages to have a long-awaited breakout like Adell, he can be controlled for many seasons beyond this season since he has just over two years of major league service time.

The Angels will have a week to trade Hicks or pass him through waivers. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while retaining the remainder of his contract, which runs through 2025. Any club willing to give him a roster spot would be in the same spot as the Angels just were, only having to pay the prorated league minimum with the Yanks on the hook for the rest.

Yankees Recall Carlos Narváez For MLB Debut

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The Yankees announced today that outfielder Alex Verdugo has been placed on the paternity list. Catcher Carlos Narváez was recalled in a corresponding move. The backstop will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Narváez, 25, was initially signed by the Yankees as an amateur out of Venezuela. He has since climbed the rungs of the minor league ladder, going down on strikes a fair bit but also drawing a fair number of walks and launching a few home runs.

He got into 100 games last year between Double-A and Triple-A, stepping to the plate 419 times. He struck out in 25.8% of those trips but also walked in 15.3% of them and hit 12 long balls. That resulted in a combined slash line of .239/.370/.397, good for a wRC+ of 101.

At the end of last year, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Narváez as the #32 prospect in the club’s system. He noted that the strikeouts will probably become too much of a problem for the backstop to be an impact hitter in the majors, as he’s especially vulnerable to high fastballs. However, Longenhagen gives praise to Narváez for his strength with controlling the running game and “fair” work in terms of receiving and blocking.

The Yanks added Narváez to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They haven’t needed his services at the major league level with Jose Trevino and Austin Wells sharing the catching duties. Narváez has also seen some limited time at the infield corners, which could give him more opportunity to get into a game before Verdugo comes back. He’s currently hitting .211/.376/.342 at Triple-A this year, walking in 18.8% of his plate appearances.

Paternity list stints have a maximum length of three days, though players sometimes get transferred to the restricted list if they need to stay with their families for a bit longer. With Verdugo gone, the Yanks still have plenty of ability to cover the outfield between Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham, Giancarlo Stanton, Taylor Trammell and Jahmai Jones.

D-backs, Ian Clarkin Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks signed left-hander Ian Clarkin to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Reno, per the club’s transaction log at MLB.com. The former Yankees first-rounder and top prospect — selected one pick after Aaron Judge — had been pitching in the Mexican League.

Now 29 years old, Clarkin has yet to make his big league debut despite a long run as a prospect of note. Baseball America ranked him as the No. 17 prospect in the 2013 draft and placed him 16th or better in New York’s system in the three years following his selection. The Yankees sent him to the White Sox alongside another former top prospect and first-rounder, outfielder Blake Rutherford, in the 2017 deadline deal that brought Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle back to the Bronx. The ChiSox and Cubs passed Clarkin back and forth a few times on waivers early in 2019.

Clarkin posted strong numbers up through High-A but was inconsistent in Double-A and struggled greatly in his lone season of Triple-A ball in 2021 (8.77 ERA, more walks than strikeouts in the Rockies’ system). He spent the 2020 and 2023 seasons pitching on the independent circuit, including 79 1/3 innings for the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks last year. He’s posted an overall 4.23 ERA in 431 2/3 minor league frames and had allowed three runs in five innings with six strikeouts (23 batters faced) in the Mexican League this year.

Clarkin becomes the second left-handed depth option for the bullpen the D-backs have added in  the past week. Arizona also claimed southpaw Joe Jacques off waivers from the Red Sox. The Snakes currently have three lefties in manager Torey Lovullo’s bullpen: Joe Mantiply, Andrew Saalfrank and Logan Allen.

Red Sox Designate Pablo Reyes For Assignment

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The Red Sox announced Monday morning that they’ve designated infielder Pablo Reyes for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to newly acquired first baseman/outfielder Garrett Cooper, whom the Sox added in a cash deal with the Cubs over the weekend.

Reyes has been with the Sox dating back to last season but is out to a brutal start at the plate, hitting just .183/.234/.217 with a 29.7% strikeout rate in his first 64 plate appearances. It’s a far cry from the .287/.339/.377 slash he posted through 185 trips to the plate with the ’23 Sox, when he punched out in only 11.4% of his turns at the plate. Reyes’ 19 strikeouts on the season are already just two fewer than the 21 he posted in nearly three times as much action last year.

The 30-year-old Reyes has appeared in parts of six big league seasons but never topped last year’s 185 plate appearances. He’s a lifetime .248/.309/.349 hitter in 572 plate appearances between the Pirates, Brewers and Sox. He’s played every position on the diamond with the exception of catcher, including a four-inning cameo on the mound. Reyes has drawn solid ratings at third base, in particular, though his versatility has in a way prevented him from picking up a meaningful sample at any single position; his 289 career frames at the hot corner are the most he’s tallied at any one spot.

Reyes is out of minor league options, so the Sox didn’t have the ability to simply send him down to Triple-A Worcester without first exposing him to waivers. They’ll have a week to trade Reyes, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. He’s previously been outrighted in his career (twice, in fact), which gives him the right to reject a minor league assignment in the event that he does clear waivers.

Astros To Promote Joey Loperfido

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The Astros will call up Joey Loperfido prior to Tuesday’s game against the Guardians, KPRC 2’s Ari Alexander reports (via X).  Loperfido isn’t on Houston’s 40-man roster, so the Astros will have to make at least one roster move to find room for the first baseman/outfielder.

Rumors about Loperfido’s promotion have swirled ever since Spring Training, when the young slugger drew attention with an 1.076 OPS over 41 Grapefruit League plate appearances.  He kept swinging a hot bat through the start of the Triple-A season, taking a .276/.376/.684 slash line through his first 117 PA of the minor league season.  Loperfido has also gone yard 13 times, as he launched his 13th home run of the young season in Triple-A Sugar Land’s 10-5 win today over the Reno Aces.

While such absurd numbers would make any prospect seem like a candidate for their MLB debut, Loperfido’s production has particularly stood out given how little the Astros have received from the first base position.  Jose Abreu is hitting .099/.156/.113 over 77 PA this season, translating to an astonishing -21 wRC+.  Though Abreu also struggled for much of the 2023 season, his rebound near the end of the year and his good showing in the playoffs led to some hope that the veteran had gotten on track, yet Abreu has limped out of the gates with the worst stretch of his career.

MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently explored Abreu’s situation, noting that Abreu’s contract (roughly $16.25MM remaining this season and $19.5MM in 2025) has certainly made the Astros wary about sitting him down, or even releasing Abreu entirely.  If Loperfido isn’t going to entirely supplant Abreu, however, Jon Singleton certainly seems like a potential cut given how Singleton is batting only .238/.319/.286 over 47 PA.  Since Singleton and Loperfido are both left-handed hitters, having Loperfido take over as the complementary first option alongside the right-handed hitting Abreu seems like a logical move for Houston.  Trey Cabbage was also on the roster as the 27th man for this weekend’s series with the Rockies in Mexico City, but Cabbage is probably more likely to head back to Triple-A.

A seventh-round pick for the Astros in the 2021 draft, Loperfido (who turns 25 in two weeks) didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, as he posted strong numbers in each of his first two minor league seasons.  He moved up the ladder quickly enough to make his Triple-A debut in 2023, though his .235/.333/.403 slash line in 138 PA with Sugar Land last year didn’t hint at his eye-popping breakout in store for 2024.

Both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America ranked Loperfido sixth on their preseason lists of Houston’s best prospects, noting his raw power potential but also highlighting his possible contributions as more than just a slugging first baseman.  Indeed, Loperfido has spent more time as an outfielder than as a first baseman, with the bulk of his minor league innings coming in center field.  Loperfido could therefore find himself getting some at-bats as a left fielder or center fielder in place of Chas McCormick or Jake Meyers — both are right-handed hitters, and McCormick isn’t producing much at the plate.  Loperfido also brings some good speed to the table, with 64 steals in 79 attempts during his minor league career.

Loperfido’s 30.8% strikeout rate at Triple-A is certainly cause for concern, plus some grain of salt must always be applied to numbers posted in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.  It should also be noted that while Abreu has been a glaring weak spot in the lineup, the Astros are hitting quite well on the whole, as pitching (and injuries within the rotation) has been the much bigger reason behind the team’s unexpectedly slow start.  Houston therefore doesn’t need Loperfido to be an immediate star right away, and frankly, the bar has been set so low by Abreu and Singleton that even average production from Loperfido would represent a nice upgrade.

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