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Astros make Joey Loperfido promotion official, but he may not play where fans thought

Joey Loperfido is officially a big leaguer after Tuesday's long-anticipated roster move
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Climbing Tal's Hill

Houston Astros v Miami Marlins / Megan Briggs/GettyImages

With the Houston Astros finally finding something resembling momentum after sweeping the Mexico City Series, there is a renewed sense of urgency around the team. At 9-19, the 2024 season is salvageable, but only if things turn around very quickly.

Otherwise, Houston could find themselves in a hole too deep to dig themselves out of no matter how talented they are. As a result, fans welcomed the news with open arms that the Astros were planning to promote Joey Loperfido to the big leagues.

After torching the competition in spring training followed immediately by posting an 1.106 OPS with 13 homers down at Triple-A, it was only a matter of time before Loperfido made his 2024 debut. Once the Astros' intentions were known that he would get called up for the team's series against Cleveland, the only question was what the corresponding roster move would be, and who would lose playing time upon his arrival with Jose Abreu, Jake Meyers, and Chas McCormick all struggling to start the season (and Loeprfido able to play all of their positions).

Well, we got our answer on Tuesday when the Astros made the move official.

Astros officially add Joey Loperfido to their roster, place Kessinger on IL

Most of the Astros' problems have been on the pitching side of things between injuries and guys falling short of expectations. However, Framber Valdez coming back from injury recently helps the cause a lot there. With few internal options to address their shortage of arms, scoring more runs is also an option to help solve the problem. Assuming Loperfido can keep his strikeouts in check, he should be an immediate threat in their lineup that makes Houston even more dangerous offensively.

We got one clue before Houston made Loperfido's call-up official as to how the Astros and manager Joe Espada would use him in the near future as Chas McCormick is dealing with a hamstring issue that could keep him out of the lineup for a bit.

For those that were hoping the Loperfido's promotion would be the end of the Jose Abreu era in Houston, those hopes may be premature. Abreu certainly hasn't been good, but it is probably better from a process perspective to rest the guy that is actually hurt vs. forcing Loperfido into a position because the incumbent is stinking it up.

Not placing McCormick on the IL is a good sign that this could just be a very temporary arrangement, but it is worth keeping an eye on.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.