January 15th, 2024: Roster Check-In, Neris, Cease, Pitching Prospects

UPDATE: I updated the Brendan Beck section because I missed some recent injury news. My bad.

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ORIGINAL POST: The offseason has been so slow and we’re down so bad for content at CBS that I wrote a quick thing explaining what the Yankees see in Luke Weaver. So if you’re desperate to read some Luke Weaver content, there you go. Here now is Tuesday morning’s post Monday afternoon because I have it written, and I see no reason to wait to hit publish.

1. Roster check-in and what’s next. The Yankees added two starting pitchers last week when they signed Marcus Stroman and re-signed Luke Weaver. Maybe it’s more like 1.5 starters since Weaver is penciled in as a swingman, but two pitchers they added. Those two are the Yankees’ first Major League additions since the Juan Soto trade last month.

With Stroman and Weaver signed (the contracts aren’t official yet but they will be later this week), let’s check in on the roster, and see what the Yankees are looking at with pitchers and catchers set to report in four weeks and two days. An asterisk means the player is out of options and has to pass through waivers to be assigned to the minors:

The Yankees will need to clear 40-man roster space once Stroman and Weaver are official. Downs, Gonzalez, and Thompson are most likely to go. The Yankees could move on from Rortvedt, though it makes sense to hang onto him just in case Trevino (coming back from wrist surgery) or Wells (missed last spring with a broken rib) gets hurt in camp.

Last week I estimated the luxury tax payroll at $299M. Cot’s says it’s $304M and FanGraphs has $305M. The exact number isn’t too important. What matters is the Yankees are over the $297M threshold – the Steve Cohen tax – which carries the stiffest penalties. The Yankees will also pay luxury tax for the third straight year in 2024. Third-time offenders have the highest tax rates.

How high? 110%. Unless the Yankees dump money and get under $297M, every dollar they add from here on out is taxed at 110%. I keep yammering about taking on Yoán Moncada to lower the prospect cost for Dylan Cease, right? Well, Moncada’s $29M ($24M salary and $5M buyout of his 2025 option) would cost the Yankees an additional $31.1M in luxury tax. Sheesh.

Given the luxury tax situation, I’m skeptical the Yankees will make another big ticket addition this offseason. Unless Blake Snell’s market collapses and he becomes available for something like three years at $35M a pop with opt outs after each year (essentially Trevor Bauer’s contract with the Dodgers), I think he’s a no go. That’s $35M in salary plus $38.5M in luxury tax in 2024.

The Yankees might have another $10M to $15M to spend on a reliever and whatever else? That would push payroll into the $315M to $320M range, which is more or less what it would have been had Yoshinobu Yamamoto accepted the Yankees’ offer. That would come with a $63M or so tax bill. I don’t care what the Yankees have to pay in tax, but Hal Steinbrenner sure cares.

"You shouldn’t have to have a $300M payroll to win a world championship because nobody has, including Houston," Hal told Andy Martino in December. (Hal used to say you don't need a $200M payroll to win a World Series, but then a bunch of teams with $200M payrolls won the World Series, so he's moved the goalposts to $300M.)

I think we all would like another starting pitcher. Someone to help protect against Rodón’s injury history, Cortes coming off two rotator cuff strains, and Schmidt’s career high workload in 2023. A trade for Edward Cabrera makes more sense now with Stroman and Weaver. The Yankees could roll the dice on James Paxton too. They’re better positioned to gamble on upside.

A bench guy to push Cabrera to Triple-A would be nice. The Yankees typically leave the bench until the very end of the offseason, when they sign a Jay Bruce or Marwin Gonzalez type to a minor league contract. Maybe that’s Matt Carpenter now that the Braves released him? Or Josh Harrison? The Yankees have had interest in him in the past. Eduardo Escobar? We’ll see.

My guess is the Yankees are done with their offseason heavy lifting. I think they’ll add a reliever and some general depth, and that’s really it. I seriously doubt Stroman was their Plan B behind Yamamoto. I think their interest in Snell and Jordan Montgomery was sincere, but the prices are simply too high, and the Yankees didn’t want to go long-term at those dollars. So, Stroman it is.

Back in the day the Yankees had to settle for Jimmy Key after missing out on Barry Bonds and Greg Maddux. Hopefully this works out like that. Key, like Stroman, was a really good pitcher who was not truly elite, though he filled a void and filled it well after the big names proved unattainable. I look forward to Stroman beating Snell in the World Series like Key beat Maddux in 1996.

Overall, I’d call this an A offseason, albeit closer to an A- than an A+ because the Yankees didn’t get Yamamoto. Soto is one of the best players in the world and Verdugo is a big upgrade over the two kids in the trench coat the Yankees stuck in left field last year. Mike King will be missed, as will some of the depth arms the Yankees traded, but, I mean, it’s Soto. You have to give to get.

The Yankees do have questions in their rotation (Cortes and Rodón) and in the lineup (Rizzo and Stanton), though every team has questions, right? When you follow your team obsessively and watch them every day, you see every single imperfection. It can be easy to lose sight of the rest of the league and see that all those other teams have questions too. That’s just baseball.

Have the Yankees done enough to get back to the postseason? I dunno. We’ll find out over the next few months. I don’t see a dominant team in the American League with the Orioles refusing to spend*, the Rays unable to keep pitchers healthy, the Rangers hamstrung by the Bally Sports thing, the Astros starting to show cracks in the foundation, and the Twins being the Twins.

* Cot’s estimates Baltimore’s Opening Day payroll at $81.3M. That’s lower than their Opening Day payroll in 2000 ($83.1M). John Angelos is a crook.

As currently constructed, the Yankees are better than last season, and I think they’re planning to be aggressive at the trade deadline. They have Soto for one guaranteed season and I think they will do what they can to make the most of it. Within reason, anyway. Being aggressive at the deadline is different than giving Montgomery or Snell six or seven years, you know?

The Yankees could and should do more and not just in the annoying way fans think they could and should do more (fans should never feel guilty about wanting their favorite team to get better). What they’ve done thus far has been good. Soto can shift the balance of power in a close race and Stroman and Verdugo are better than what was in-house. A good offseason, even if I am still chapped about Yamamoto.

2. Latest hot stove rumors and roster news. Even after the Marcus Stroman signing and Luke Weaver re-signing, the rumors and minor league signings keep rolling in. Here’s the latest from the hot stove league.

Yankees a frontrunner for Neris

Along with the Rangers, the Yankees have emerged as a frontrunner for free agent reliever Hector Neris, according to Mark Feinsand. Neris declined his $8.5M player option with the Astros to hit the open market. He received a $1M buyout, so it was a $7.5M decision, and to qualify for the player option, he had to pass a physical after the postseason. Neris did that, so he’s healthy.

Neris, 34, had a shiny 1.71 ERA in 68.1 innings with Houston last season, though as I wrote in last week’s bullpen post, there are some red flags. The last few years he’s lost a bit of velocity, lost a good amount of whiffs, gotten fewer grounders, and allowed more hard contact. To wit:

To be fair to Neris, a 28.2% strikeout rate and 42.4% splitter whiff rate are well above average. It’s not like his strikeout rate is in the teens or something. Still though, he turns 35 in June and he’s averaged 70 appearances in the last seven 162-game seasons. It’s fair to wonder whether those trends are an indication age and workload are catching up to Neris.

(Also, Neris had a .219 BABIP and 90.5% strand rate in 2023, and that’s just not going to last. His career numbers are .280 and 78.7%, respectively, and it was .276 and 70.4% from 2021-22.)

I have a familiar worst case scenario comp for Neris: Tyler Clippard. When Clippard rejoined the Yankees in 2016, he was one of the game’s premier workhorse relievers, though he was bleeding velocity and his changeup wasn’t getting as many empty swings. Clippard pitched well after the trade in 2016 and early in 2017, then bam, it all fell apart in the middle of 2017, seemingly overnight.

That’s usually how it goes, right? It’s not a smooth decline. It happens all at once, and suddenly the player just isn’t good anymore. There are enough red flags with Neris and enough other quality bullpen options in free agency that I’d prefer the Yankees look elsewhere. Phil Maton and Keynan Middleton seem like safer bets, and will probably cost less.

Giants sign Hicks (as a starter?)

The Giants signed righty Jordan Hicks to a four-year contract worth $44M over the weekend, and they’re bringing him to camp as a starting pitcher. The Cardinals tried to make Hicks a starter a few years ago and it went terribly, though I suppose he could be in a better spot to try it now. The Giants will probably turn him into a three-inning once through the order starter or something annoying.

The Yankees had interest in Hicks earlier this offseason and Andy Martino says they were “in heavy” on him before he went to San Francisco. Four years and $11M is the going rate for a top setup man these days, and that’s what Hicks is. The Giants are giving him a chance to start too. I’m not sure the Yankees would’ve gone for that. Not sure it’s a good idea anyway.

Between the continued interest in Hicks and the newly reported interest in Neris, it seems the Yankees want to add to their bullpen, and in a meaningful way. They want an established high leverage guy, not middle innings depth. Neris makes me nervous, though the Yankees are good at building bullpens. I trust them to land on the right name(s). And if they don’t, they’ll adjust.

White Sox want Hampton or Jones for Cease

According to Bob Nightengale, the White Sox are seeking Chase Hampton or Spencer Jones in a Dylan Cease trade. Jon Heyman backed up the Jones report last week. “And” and “or” are very different things! Hampton and Jones? Boy, that’s a big ask. But Hampton or Jones? Well that’s much more reasonable. One top prospect plus secondary pieces works for me.

Consider the starting pitcher trade market. Tyler Glasnow visits the injured list every year and he had one expensive ($25M) year of control, and the Dodgers had to give up a pretty good young starter (Ryan Pepiot) and take on Manny Margot’s $12M to get him. Getting two affordable years of Cease for a package led by Hampton seems pretty good to me, comparatively.

Also, we have to acknowledge that as exciting as Jones is, there are contact rate concerns, and he may be 2-3 years away from really impacting the Yankees. Is it better to hang onto Jones, or to use him as a trade chip to get immediate help during Juan Soto’s one guaranteed year with the Yankees, and before Gerrit Cole and Aaron Judge age out as elite players?

Hampton and Jones would give me pause. Hampton or Jones is worth exploring. Get Cease with a team that isn’t in the Stone Age pitching-wise and he has a chance to be excellent. We saw it in 2022. It’s in there and I’d like to give Matt Blake a chance to get that out of Cease consistently. Nightengale can be hit or miss. If it really is Hampton or Jones, I bet the Yankees stay involved.

(I’m torn between wanting the Yankees to trade for Cease and improve the team, and wanting the Yankees to keep Hampton and Jones because I already wrote them up for the Top 30 Prospects List, and I don’t want to do any more work than I have to. Real quandary here.)

Details of Weaver’s contract

Joel Sherman has the details of Luke Weaver’s new contract, which includes bonuses tied to both starting and relieving, and salary escalators tied to innings. It’s a $2M salary in 2024 with a $2.5M club option (no buyout) for 2025. Here’s all the extra money:

• $50,000 each for 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 starts
• $50,000 each for 45, 50, 55, and 60 appearances
• 2025 option salary increases to $3M with 100 innings in 2024, $4M with 120 innings, $5M with 140 innings, and $6M with 160 innings

There’s a scenario where Weaver pitches well and still hits none of those bonuses or escalators. Al Aceves pitched to a 3.54 ERA (3.75 FIP) as the long man in 2009, and he threw 84 innings across 42 relief appearances and one start. That’s a really valuable pitcher. And if Weaver does what Aceves did in 2009, he’d trigger zero bonuses or escalators.

Even with Mike King’s workload last year, Weaver would have only triggered one $50,000 bonus (for 49 appearances) and boosted his 2025 option to $3M (for 104.2 innings). It’s not a given Weaver reaches these bonuses given his projected swingman role, even if he pitches well. His best chance at a few extra bucks is being thrust into the rotation for an extended period.

Weaver is stepping into Domingo Germán’s role. Germán was expected to open last season as the long man in the bullpen, but injuries pushed him into the Opening Day rotation. Germán threw 108.2 innings with a 4.56 ERA (4.65 FIP) in 2023. That’s a tick below league average. Getting that from Weaver for $2M (plus bonuses) would be a great outcome.

Yankees sign Escarra

And finally, the Yankees have signed utility man J.C. Escarra, he announced on Instagram. Safe to assume it’s a minor league contract, presumably with an invite to Spring Training. Escarra, 29 in April, hit .348/.423/.707 with 15 homers in 93 games with the Gastonia Honey Hunters in the independent Atlanta League last season. He also played part of the year in the Mexican League.

Once upon a time Escarra had prospect shine with the Orioles, though it’s been a while. He’s a left-handed hitter who’s played catcher, first base, and right field regularly over the years. Seems to me he’s ticketed for a utility role with Triple-A Scranton. He might even be the full-time Triple-A first baseman if the Yankees think T.J. Rumfield needs more time in Double-A. Rumfield hit .219/.320/.438 (106 wRC+) in 82 games with Somerset last season.

Escarra is the tenth player the Yankees have signed to a minor league contract this offseason. He joins RHP Nick Burdi, RHP Yerry De Los Santos, OF Luis González, LHP Anthony Misiewicz, LHP Oddanier Mosqueda, RHP Dennis Santana, IF Kevin Smith, LHP Tanner Tully, and RHP Duane Underwood Jr. Chances are a few more non-roster signings will trickle in before camp.

3. The next wave of pitching prospects. Over the last 18 months or so the Yankees have traded an incredible 14 pitching prospects for Major League roster help. That’s not including Mike King, who was an established big leaguer when he went to the Padres in the Juan Soto trade. I might as well lay it all out. Here are those 14 traded pitching prospects:

• Andrew Benintendi trade: Beck Way, Chandler Champlain, T.J. Sikkema
• Scott Effross trade: Hayden Wesneski
• Keynan Middleton trade: Juan Carela
• Frankie Montas trade: Luis Medina, JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk
• Juan Soto trade: Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe, Randy Vásquez
• Alex Verdugo trade: Richard Fitts, Nick Judice, Greg Weissert

The Yankees picked up a few pitching prospects along the way (Joey Gallo for Clayton Beeter, etc.) and we can quibble over whether guys like Brito and Weissert qualify as prospects given their big league time. Point is, that’s 14 young arms out the door since the 2022 trade deadline. Matt Sauer and Mitch Spence were lost in the Rule 5 Draft too. Don’t forget about them.

“It’s definitely bittersweet,” senior director of pitching Sam Briend told Greg Joyce last month. “... (Prospects) feel like family at a point. You can’t not be excited for them to get a shot. And you know the next wave is coming up.”

To the Yankees’ credit, there has always been a “next wave” of pitching prospects the last few seasons. Glen Otto and Alex Vizcaino were traded at the 2021 deadline, then Waldichuk and Wesneski emerged. When those two were traded in 2022, up stepped Chase Hampton and Will Warren. Who will be the next wave in 2024? That’s what we’re here to figure out.

Left-hander Henry Lalane has already emerged as the Next Big Thing in the farm system, so he doesn’t fit this exercise. I’m going to try to identify five pre-breakout pitching prospects who could be 2024’s Hampton or Warren. Guys who pop up seemingly out of nowhere and become the “next wave,” as Briend put it. Let’s get to it.

RHP Chalniel Arias

Acquired: Signed Nov. 2021 out of Dominican Republic (bonus unknown)
2023 stats: 3.09 ERA (2.92 FIP), 31.1 K%, 8.7 BB%, 54.5 GB% (46.2 IP in Rk)

As best I can tell, this Arias is not related to Roderick Arias, one of the Yankees’ top prospects. This Arias pitched well in the Dominican Summer League while working mostly as a reliever in 2022, then he really tore up the DSL as a starter in 2023: 54 strikeouts and nine walks in 38 innings. The Yankees bumped him up to the Florida Complex League for his final three starts.

Eric Longenhagen ranked Arias the No. 15 prospect in the system a few weeks ago. That seems a bit aggressive, or maybe I’m just late to the party and Arias already had his breakout. I dunno. Here’s what Longenhagen wrote about Arias (here’s video):

He throws quality fastball strikes in the 92-94 mph range and has advanced feel for dotting his upper-70s bullet slider on the corner of the plate. You can dream on Arias’ fastball velocity and changeup quality because of his spindly build, relative youth, and the overall fluidity of his mechanics. Arias will enter 2024 the age of a college sophomore, poised to spend most of the year in extended spring/FCL action. He’s a malleable and exciting young pitching prospect.

Arias turned 20 in September and will pitch most of next season at that age. Given that, he is a candidate to be the next Lalane (rookie ball breakout) than the next Hampton or Warren (college kid who breaks out in High-A). He’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 165 lbs. too. There’s still room for Arias to fill out his frame and add a little more power to his arsenal.

I may be a year or two early on Arias. He might be a 2025 breakout. These lesser heralded rail thin international kids who spend multiple years in the DSL can sometimes need a few years to put it all together, like Brito and Vásquez. Arias does stand out among the DSL and rookie ball arms the Yankees have though. The present stuff is good and there’s room to grow as well.

RHP Brendan Beck

Acquired: 2021 second round, No. 55 overall ($1.05M bonus)
2023 stats: 1.59 ERA (2.87 FIP), 31.0 K%, 5.4 BB%, 41.8 GB% (33 IP in Rk, A+)

This is an important year for Beck, who pitched well in his return from Tommy John surgery last season and is just now getting his pro career underway. He’s already 25 though (he was drafted as a college senior), and this is his 40-man roster evaluation year. Last year’s 33 innings are the entirety of Beck’s pro career and he’ll be 26 when the 40-man roster decision has to be made.

Coming out of Stanford, the book on Beck said he had above-average command of a four-pitch mix: low-90s heater, curveball, slider, changeup. That four-pitch package and command allowed him to carve up High-A hitters (here’s video). Beck was still in the low-90s though, and his secondaries were not noticeably more crisp. For all intents and purposes, he looked the same as before elbow reconstruction.

The hope was Beck would level up with pro instruction, giving him nastier stuff to go with his trademark command. That hasn’t happened yet, and if it doesn’t happen in 2024, it’s fair to wonder if it ever will. Then again, if it does happen, and Beck shows up to camp throwing 94-96 mph rather than 90-92 mph, the Yankees could really have something here. It’s a big year for Beck.

UPDATE: Beck had "additional elbow work (that) was long overdue" on Jan. 5th, he posted on Instagram. I don't know the nature of the injury or the surgery, but obviously this throws a wrench into his breakout potential and upcoming season. Bummer. 

LHP Kyle Carr

Acquired: 2023 third round, No. 97 overall ($692,000 bonus)
2023 stats: Did not pitch after signing

My money’s on Carr being the next breakout pitcher in the Hampton and Warren mold. He was a fairly high draft pick, so I’m not going out on a limb here, but Carr has a strong foundation and room to grow. Here’s a snippet of Baseball America’s pre-draft scouting report (subs. req’d) (here’s video):

Carr is a 6-foot-1, 175-pound lefthander with growing stuff and physical projection still remaining. His fastball sits 92-95 mph and touches 97 out of an easy, athletic delivery. He holds his velocity deep into starts and often dials up his fastball to throw harder late in games. He is still thin and has a chance to continue adding velocity as he gains weight and strength. Carr’s best secondary is a slider that flashes average with late bite when he stays on top of it, although he sometimes gets around it and it gets sweepy. He rarely throws his below-average, mid-80s changeup … He pitches from the third-base side of the rubber and occasionally opens up in his delivery, but his athleticism allows him to throw strikes with average control.

Rather than assign him to an affiliate, the Yankees held Carr out of games after the draft and instead sent him to the Gas Station in Tampa for pitch design work. That’s standard operating procedure for the Yankees and many other smart teams across the league. Get your new pitchers in the lab, optimize their arsenal, then turn them loose the next year (like Hampton and Warren).

The Yankees have a thing for boosting velocity and sharpening sliders. Carr already sits 92-95 mph with a slider that “flashes average with late bite when he stays on top of it.” If he comes out of the Gas Station throwing, say, 94-96 mph with a wipeout slider, Carr suddenly becomes very interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing (and hearing about) what he looks like early in 2024.

RHP Zach Messinger

Acquired: 2021 13th round, No. 393 overall ($225,000 bonus)
2023 stats: 4.35 ERA (5.00 FIP), 26.9 K%, 12.1 BB%, 37.5 GB% (101.1 IP in A+, AA)

Breakouts can happen at any time, though Messinger is already beyond the point where, if he was going to make a Hampton or Warren-like ascent, it would have happened already. He just wrapped up his second pro season and those other guys showed up as different pitchers in their first pro season, after their pitch design work. Messinger’s passed that point.

That said, there are things to like here, and not every pitching prospect needs to be a Hampton or Warren type to have value. The recently turned 24-year-old is a massive human (listed at 6-foot-6 and 225 lbs.) and he has a four-pitch mix. Here’s MLB.com (here’s video):

Messinger operated at 92-94 and touched 99 with armside run and carry on his four-seamer in 2022. His slider went from parking in the upper 70s (in college) to sitting at 81-84 mph with high spin rates and dastardly sweep. He also has good shape on an upper-70s curveball that added power but doesn't find the strike zone consistently … Messinger's changeup is a work in progress, showing some sink but coming in too firm in the mid-80s. He uses his 6-foot-6 frame to create difficult angle and extension, though he's still learning to harness his improved arsenal.

Messinger’s 2023 velocity was in the same range as his 2022 velocity, and that’s encouraging because 2023 was his first full season as a starter. Even in college, he split his time between the rotation and bullpen. Messinger held his velocity within games and deep into the season while racking up the most innings and the biggest workload of his career. That’s good news.

Throwing strikes is an issue (12.3% walks as a pro) and that’s the single biggest thing holding Messinger back. When he’s around the zone, he’s a handful. He’s a big dude who gets right on top of hitters, and he has multiple weapons. Messinger has a pretty good chance to pitch in the big leagues at some point, even if only as an up and down depth arm. The tools are there.

Messinger spent all of last year in High-A save for one Double-A start to end the season. He’ll open 2024 back with Double-A Somerset and boy, if he throws strikes and pitches well, the 40-man roster decision after the season gets real interesting. Messinger might be a candidate to pitch his way into trade value rather than become the next Hampton or Warren.

RHP Cade Smith

Acquired: 2023 6th round, No. 192 overall ($282,900 bonus)
2023 stats: Did not pitch after signing

The middle rounds are where the Yankees have found so many quality pitching prospects the last few years. It goes back to Jordan Montgomery (4th round in 2014). More recently there’s Waldichuk (5th round in 2019), Wesneski (6th round in 2019), Fitts (6th round in 2021), Warren (8th round in 2021), and Hampton (6th round in 2022). That’s good work.

Smith is a candidate to join that group and not just because of his draft round. The 21-year-old missed time with an injury at Mississippi State last spring and then he did the pitch design thing in Tampa after the draft last summer. Here’s what Baseball America wrote going into the draft (subs. req’d) (here’s video):

Smith has loud pure stuff, with a 92-95 mph fastball that has been up to 97 that has great carry and around 20 inches of induced vertical break. He also gets plenty of misses with a mid-80s slider that has hard, late biting action and consistently sneaks under barrels and elicits chases out of the zone. On top of an electric fastball/slider duo that headlines the arsenal, Smith has some feel to spin a power curve in the low 80s and has also mixed in a tumbling, mid-80s changeup. He’s struggled to consistently command the ball dating back to his prep days, and without any huge improvements in that area, carries significant reliever risk.

Hampton, Waldichuk, Warren, and others all came with reliever risk when they were drafted, but the Yankees were able to refine and widen their arsenals enough, and hone their control enough to turn them into starters. The fastball/slider combination gives Smith a chance to at least be a reliever. There’s also enough here for him to be the next breakout mid-round pick.

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Although the Yankees have gotten much better at developing pitchers in recent years, there is one valid criticism, I think. They only produce guys, not capital-G Guys. They don’t develop impact pitchers who can be difference-makers for a contending team. The Yankees develop pitchers who can give you innings and help fill out a staff, but not really move the needle.

That’s not a bad thing, to be clear. You’d rather be able to call up a Brito or a Vásquez when you need innings then have to turn to the trade market in desperation. The Yankees couldn’t develop depth arms for a long, long time. Now they can, and to their credit, they recognize what they have and don’t hesitate to trade these guys. They moved Waldichuk and Wesneski (and Thorpe) at the height of their value.

Jordan Montgomery and Luis Severino are the two best starters the Yankees have developed in the last what, 20 years? Chien-Ming Wang and Iván Nova are the next tier. Hopefully Hampton and Warren can change that, ditto Arias, Beck, Carr, et al. That latter group may only be the next wave of trade bait though, and hey, that’s okay. The Yankees need trade bait too.

(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it returns.)