Prospect News: Tonight Is Right For Lonnie White Jr.

Astros 1B Joey Loperfido (24, AAA) already has nine home runs in 12 games this season while the major league club is getting minimal production from Jose Abreu and Jonathan Singleton. Abreu is making $19.5 million this year and 19.5 again in 2025. He has a wRC+ of negative 32 in his 12 games this season. Here’s what I wrote about Loperfido when I ranked him number one in my Houston Astros Top 10 Prospects for 2024 Fantasy Baseball: 

“A seventh-round pick in 2021, Loperfido produced better than average lines at each step along the way until a difficult 32-game stint in Triple-A to close out the 2023 season. In the box, he’s a 6’3” 230 lb lefty with power. In the field, he’s a right-handed thrower with enough athleticism that he’s a real option in center field. In 84 games at Double-A, he slashed .296/.392/.548 with 19 home runs and 20 stolen bases. I’m pretty bullish on his chances to carve out a role for himself in center or a corner outfield spot or at first base.”

If you’ve been around a while, you know I’m not a big horn tooter. Years ago, I caught some flak in the comments because I was way higher on Jeremy Pena than consensus. This year, when my Astros list dropped, my own brother messaged me to say he would’ve ranked somebody else atop that list. Makes sense. Houston’s org is nigh indecipherable. Which is why I really dig in there year over year. Loperfido is still striking out 35 percent of the time in Triple-A, so it’s premature for a victory lap, but I am feeling a slight bounce in these old calf muscles. 

Blue Jays OF Will Robertson (26, AAA) is slashing .435/.536/1.130 with four homers in seven games. Small sample size, who cares right? Well if we track back to July 3 of 2023, Robertson’s line reads .332/.392/.678 with 15 home runs in 54 games. He has also struck out 30.2 percent of the time in those games, but hey we’re fishing in deep water on this one, and Toronto needs a spark on offense. 

Yankees C Agustin Ramirez (22, AA) is feeling fine to start the season. He’s already got five home runs in six games and looks solid behind the dish. He struggled for 31 games in Double-A last season (.212/.273/.313) after tearing through High-A in just 27 games, slashing .384/.430/.714 with nine home runs. With power, defense and a strikeout rate under 20 percent throughout his career, Ramirez looks like a high-probability big league backstop and has the all-fields power to take advantage of his home environment if he remains a Yankee. 

He doesn’t bring the two-way topside of Ramirez, but Diamondbacks C Adrian Del Castillo (24, AAA) belongs in a similar bucket as a near-ready backstop who can limit his strikeouts and provide power. The snakes are pretty set with Gabriel Moreno behind the plate, and he’s backed up by 33-year-old Tucker Barnhart at the moment, but perhaps Del Castillo could change that if he keeps hitting for average (.400) and power (4 HR in 8 games). 

I have liked Cardinals 2B Jose Fermin (25, AAA) for a long time, but he never seemed likely to get much of a chance with Cleveland, and his situation in St. Louis seems similar at a glance, but Fermin might be changing that fate with a fast start in 2024, slashing .379/.471/.724 with two strikeouts, four walks, two homers and three steals in ten games. Teammate Thomas Saggese is slashing .229/.300/.343 with a 32.5 percent strikeout rate, so there’s a chance Fermin will find an early opportunity this year if anyone on the infield gets hurt.  

Opportunity is knocking for Rays 2B Curtis Mead, who has played nine games at the keystone in 2024, including his Saturday start against Logan Webb. The team recalled Niko Goodrum, so there’s always a chance Mead loses these kinds of starts against tough righties, but I think the gig is more or less his until proven otherwise. He’s not getting great results just yet, but he has struck out just five times in ten games (34 PA). 

Pirates OF Lonnie White Jr. (21, A+) is striking out a lot (35.5 percent), but he’s making plenty of impact when he does connect, slashing .321/.387/.893 with four home runs and a steal in seven games. The strikeouts are easy to forgive for the moment because White is a 99th percentile athlete for whom the rules will apply a little more loosely than they do for the average dude. 

The White Sox are terrible right now, and it can’t get much better while they’re starting Kevin Pillar in the cleanup spot. C Korey Lee has started at DH in two of the last four games and is slashing .318/.348/.500 with a 17.4 percent strikeout rate through 23 plate appearances. I’m not especially optimistic about Lee as a hitter, but I do think he’s going to play a lot in Chicago this season and could be valuable to us in deep leagues. 

Thanks for reading!