NEWSLETTER
The Cubs aren’t completely finished making moves even after re-signing Cody Bellinger. But any additional moves they make are MOST LIKELY to be around the edges. Modest moves. Minor moves. No-risk moves.
For example, bringing in another right-handed bench bat option:
To be clear, that’s a minor league deal with a non-roster invitation to Spring Training.
Garrett Cooper, 33, was a long-time extremely-underrated performer for the Miami Marlins, hitting .274/.350/.444/117 wRC+ from 2019 through 2022.
He started out 2023 closer to league-average overall, and the Marlins traded him to the Padres at the deadline for Ryan Weathers. It looks by the metrics that he was mostly his usual self, and just got a little unlucky, for what that’s worth. Cooper went on to be slightly above-average overall for the Padres from there, and then found no market for his services in free agency.
Some of that is probably his age (he’s not old, but at 33, you’re not betting on any additional upside). Some of that is probably his splits (he’s always hit lefties better (120 wRC+) and destroyed them last year, but there’s a limited market for those guys). Some of that is positional (he’s pretty much first-base-only at this point, albeit pretty solid there by the metrics).
Still, this is a guy who would historically find a bench job somewhere, or at least would find a minor league deal on a club where it’s quite clear he’s going to make the team.
Is it clear he’s going to make the Cubs? That’s harder to see, given the roster crowding we discussed this morning. If Cody Bellinger’s re-signing made it harder for guys like David Peralta or Dom Smith to make the roster, then the same is going to be true for Cooper, even if they aren’t one-to-one guys in terms of role or usage. There just aren’t a ton of bench spots to go around, and even if Christopher Morel wins the third base job, I don’t know that the Cubs are looking to add a DH type externally, even in a platoon role (that is to say, rostering a guy to be the short-side of a platoon at DH would be really weird).
Some immediate questions: is this truly just depth behind depth and another contender for the roster? Is someone hurt? Is someone like Patrick Wisdom being traded? That’d be surprising, but Cooper does a lot of what Wisdom projects to do on this team, but would be cheaper and isn’t currently on the 40-man (so a Wisdom trade would open up the needed spot for Cody Bellinger).
I don’t want to go too far into speculation mode when we’re talking about a minor league signing and spring competition type guy. But Cooper is potentially plenty good enough to make a big league bench, so it’s a little odd that *HE* would choose to sign with the Cubs unless maybe he knew something we don’t about his chances.
In other words, Cooper is the caliber of player who, if he had to settle for a minor league deal, could be very choosy about where he went. Where he thought he had the best chance to make the team. So this is curious.
Stay tuned.
