The Marlins have optioned down struggling outfielder Lewis Brinson, as MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro was among those to tweet. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Garrett Cooper.
It’s quite a disappointing outcome for Brinson as he prepares to celebrate his 25th birthday. The hope was that he’d have translated his obvious abilities into MLB production by this point. At the moment, Brinson has one year and 58 days of MLB service on his odometer, meaning he can only stay in the minors for 39 days if he’s to crack two full years of MLB service by season’s end.
Brinson turned in a disappointing first season in Miami after arriving as a major part of the Christian Yelich swap. Things have gotten even worse in 2019, as Brinson’s already meager power and walk numbers have cratered yet further.
All told, Brinson is sitting on a .190/.240/.321 slash line with a 30.4% strikeout rate and 4.8% walk rate through 543 plate appearances at the game’s highest level. That’s a fair sight shy of what he has produced over a similar stretch at Triple-A: .342/.398/.560 with 18 home runs and 18 steals in 497 plate appearances. And it’s well short of expectations for a player long tabbed as one of the twenty or so best prospects in baseball.
As for the 28-year-old Cooper, he’ll hope to finally get back to full health and stay that way. He was sidelined most recently with a calf strain. The Marlins have hoped for some time to give him an opportunity to prove he’s capable of hitting in the majors, but he has played in only 36 total games at all levels since joining the organization via trade in the 2017-18 offseason. Cooper will likely see time in the corner outfield and at first base.
david klein
Yelich trade is the gift that keeps giving
stubby66
If Cooper can just stay healthy he will show that he belongs in the majors. Two years ago it was him , Austin and Bird for first base for the Yankees and they shipped him out even after outplaying them when he came over from the Brewers. I want him to prove them all wrong.
spooky
Outplayed Bird AND Austin? Sounds hitterish.
walls17
They have Voit now though and I think you would rather have Voit over Cooper. At least I hope you would think that
leefieux
Looks like the proverbial Quad A player.
DarkSide830
that Yelich trade was a loss as soon as it was made. Marlins got a bunch of prospects with contact issues and a health question mark in Yamamoto. they could have gotten better from trading with most other teams.
Rallyshirt
What exactly did the Marlins do to prepare this guy for his big debut?
nymetsking
hookers and blow
jorge78
Stop!
RICHDE
This was the right thing to do.
Perhaps a miracle will happen in the minors and he will learn to shorten his swing.
solaris602
Exactly what I was thinking. He swings with all his might as a matter of course, and his 2-strike approach is to swing even harder.
bjupton100
Send him to Asia.
stubby66
Give him a break he has time to turn it around. I suspect that
hiflew
Something tells me that unless Brinson turns his game around, service time is not really going to be his biggest issue. Learning to speak Korean or Japanese might be though.
thegreatcerealfamine
What is the something that is telling you?
jorge78
His stats?
Steven Chinwood
Yea cause he has such an extensive time in the big leagues to make that determination. COME-ON-MAN
stubby66
Cut him a break he has time to turn it around I predict that Harrison, Diaz, and Brinson to be regular starters by next year and Yomato to be in the bullpen by the end of next year.
jorge78
A nice Crystal ball!
hiflew
So you think the Marlins will lose 100 next year too?
baseballpun
Assuming the Cards were discussing possible trades for both Ozuna and Yelich after the Stanton deal fell through and the Ozuna deal was finalized, I wonder what the Cards offered/the Marlins asked for Yelich.
Of course maybe the Cards never engaged on Yelich. Seems like it would be malpractice to not at least see what the options were, though.
batty
From all the write ups i’ve read, the Cardinals were told flat out that Yelich was not on the block.
Backatitagain
Marlins could save face on the yelich trade by swapping Brinson with the Braves for a Starting PiYcher like Julio Teheran. How about Lewis Brinson, Tayron Guerrero and Braxton Garrett for Julio Teheran and Ender inciarte. Then Marlins can postulate that they got Inciarte and Teheran as part of the Yelich deal.
thegreatcerealfamine
Teheran has got to be the most tradable player in the history of MLBTR.
davengmusic
Hasheem ThaBUST
bravesfan
Marlins are the laughing stock of the league. How do you trade away a mvp and future mvp, and get NOTHING! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Traded arguably the best outfield trio in baseball for barely anything decent! What a joke!
thegreatcerealfamine
The Marlins have more rings in the last 25 years than the Braves. LOFL BAHABAHABAHABAH!!!!
bravesfan
Marlins only have 6 winning season since their creation. ONLY 6! I’ll tip my hat to the 2 titles. But Ill take my 1 title in the last 25 years with good winning baseball over the laughing stock of baseball and only 1 more title lol! Sounds fair to me lol
hiflew
That’s what I don’t understand about people. Why is it that some people think rings are the end all and be all The playoffs are nothing but a tournament with a lot of luck factored in. I would much rather have my team make the playoffs more often. To me, it says more about a team to be better over 162 games than being better over 15-20. Besides, every one of these guys can afford to buy championship rings for every digit they have if they really need them.
Steven Chinwood
Because that’s the point for every professional sports team.
bravesfan
Let’s take a moment to learn from the marlins on how to not manage a baseball organization
stretch123
Still more titles than the Braves since 1993…
bravesfan
Only 6 winning season in franchise history and only 1 title more than the braves in that time. I’ll take my winning baseball and 1 title, you keep your losing baseball and scum of baseball.
Bocephus
You must be a millennial.
bravesfan
Cause that makes sense…
PhilsPhan
Get out of here with that crap.
PhilsPhan
@bocephus I mean
Steven Chinwood
Touchy Touchy
jdgoat
Wait you mean trading all your star talent for pennies on the dollar isn’t the way to go?
bravesfan
I didn’t think the trades the marlins made with 2 MVP’s were good at all. They are freaking MVP’s, albeit one wasn’t at the trade but everyone knew he was the real deal. Braves dealt their star players for decent hauls most of the time and it paid off sooner rather than later. I would pull my hair out if they only had 6 winning season
stretch123
Give him until the all star break and let’s se what happens. Hit him lead off and start him 4- 5 times a week and have him study film and the details for the other 2- 3 days of the week. He needs to refine his mental approach and learn how to make contact with the baseball. Power, speed are both there for him just needs to refine his mental approach to make contact with the baseball, imo.
imindless
Could have had verdugo instead settled for this bum.
PhilsPhan
Verdugo looks like a high alp
PhilsPhan
like a Juggalo*
stupid autocorrect
Boogaloo
Garret Cooper, thats the stiff the Spankees traded to get michael king, the Yankees minor league pitcher of the year.
Just after they fleeced the Marlins for domingo German.
MLB beeds to look into why Miami keeps giving NY top talent for virtually nothing.
ColossusOfClout
Ya, and investigate the Cards for giving them Voit for Shreve while they’re at. It wouldn’t have anything to do with having the best analytics team in baseball. No chance, right, dip?
TreyMancini
@boogaloo Agreed. Something is fishy.
icedoutref
Can’t be mad about it hopefully he’ll figure it out, ultimately it all falls on Jeter coming in and trading off Stanton to the Yanks and then obliging the trade requests that followed. To be expected from one with no front office experience, they had all the leverage they coulda held out for better deals for Yelich and Ozuna at least. I let the Realmuto trade slide because it’ll most likely be the most beneficial in the long run. Miami would have attendance if they didn’t have a history of selling the team, there should be a solid mix of veterans and prospects coming up, not a lot of either/or. Still a fan, but Jeter wasn’t the right move and it doesn’t look like they will do anything about it soon. Mattingly needs to go aswell.
Cave Johnson
Brinson’s AAA stats, mostly from Colorado Springs, might be taken with a grain of salt since apparently it has the highest elevation professional park in America; looks like the Marlins’ AAA team is in New Orleans.
Therealrandymarsh
Another overhyped black outfielder…..haha. It seems actual production is better than “if the stars align” prospects. Theres only one barry bonds. Take the baseball player….not the “athlete”
JoeBrady
A couple of others touched on it, but why was Brinson on the team in the first place? He had a 120/17 K/W in 2018. The trade is already a sunk cost. But you shouldn’t compound that error by forcing him to play on a ML team when he can’t make contact. He should’ve been demoted halfway thru 2018, let alone 2019.
Tell him he can return when he gets something closer to a 2/1 K/W instead of 7/1.