July 19: Both Chisholm and Cooper are undergoing MRIs today, Wilson tweets. Manager Don Mattingly said simply that it “didn’t look good” for either player. Mish adds that he expects Chisholm to be placed on the injured list. The outlook on Cooper is not yet clear.
July 18: Two of the Marlins’ most prominent players made early exits from today’s 7-4 loss to the Phillies. Jazz Chisholm Jr. suffered a left shoulder contusion in the first inning and had to leave the game, while Garrett Cooper departed in the eighth inning due to an elbow injury sustained after Travis Jankowski ran into Cooper’s arm during a play at first base.
Marlins skipper Don Mattingly told reporters (including Craig Mish and David Wilson of the Miami Herald) that both players will receive further testing, including an MRI for Cooper tomorrow. A first set of x-rays on Chisholm’s shoulder didn’t reveal anything, which is a very good sign considering how much pain Chisholm was in after awkwardly landing on the field in his attempt to catch a Bryce Harper bloop single in right field.
Chisholm already spent a few weeks on the injured list this season due to a hamstring injury, and missed a few games but avoided another IL visit while battling through a bad ankle. After a very hot start to the season, Chisholm has hit only .238/.293/.399 in 209 plate appearances since returning from the injured list on May 16, though he had started to swing the bat a little better over the last couple of weeks.
Overall, Chisholm hasn’t done anything to detract from his status as a building block piece for Miami, but naturally the team would love to see the 23-year-old shake the injury bug and continue to gain more experience (today was only Chisholm’s 91st career MLB game) in what is increasingly looking like a developmental year for the last-place Marlins. Today’s loss dropped the Fish to a 40-53 record, and with 9.5 games between the Marlins and first place in the NL East, Miami looks like a team that will be in seller mode heading into the July 30 trade deadline.
To that end, Cooper stood out as a potential trade chip, provided he is healthy. Cooper has quietly been a very productive player for the last three seasons, including a .282/.378/.463 slash line and nine homers in 251 PA in 2021. Any number of contending teams could be interested in that type of offense from first base or right field, and Cooper is also both controllable (through 2023) and affordable, as he is owed roughly $748K for the remainder of this season. Even a 10-day stint on the IL, however, could scuttle Cooper’s chances of being moved at the deadline, so the Marlins might have to wait until the offseason to possibly revisit the idea of trading the 30-year-old.
Chisholm is the more valuable property long term to the Marlins, but short term Cooper is more valuable to keep healthy as trade material.
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
For all the rule changes they have been making, the one they really gotta do it to extend 1B (the actual base itself) into foul territory and create a lane, so then hitters can slide into first without coming into contact with the first baseman. Have almost like 2 first bases, or one in fair one in foul like, one big bag. We gotta clean up these “home to first” problems the game keeps having. If they dont want to straight up make sliding into first illegal, then this is a compromise. It would only be on 1B side, other bases are fine. The play Cooper got hurt on here would not have happened if this was the case.
Interesting points, and you’re not wrong. I think Alfaro should’ve let that ball go foul, but a rule change to keep players safe is never a bad idea.
Start by making the bases softer and not slippery AF it’s there’s any moisture whatsoever on the bags.
What happened to Cooper was the very thing that happened to Hoskins last season and required Tommy John surgery to fix.
Marlins need to play Jazz vs SP’ers that he’s good at and sit vs tough Sp’ers and should only be used as a speed option as a late inning baserunners during those games.
They both looked pretty severe TBH.
The injury updates regarding MLB players after games is beginning to look like the NFL…..although the NFL only plays once a week.
With access to nutritional information, trainers and the best scanning equipment, maybe some of the players ought to spend less time picking out jewelry to wear around their necks during a game and more time figuring out how to stay healthy during the season.
This is ridiculous.
I saw the play Coper was injured on. The Marlin that threw the ball put it into the batter running to 1B. So 1) the throw was bad, and 2) Cooper didn’t play it correctly.
If one understands fundamental baseball, it’s impossible to watch a MAJOR LEAGUE game and not place palm to forehead at least a half-dozen times a game……..
Earlier in the game with runner on 2B a Marlin hit a grounder to the pitcher – Connor Brogdon. He turned around, and instead of running at the runner and forcing him back to 2B where he would get trapped in a rundown, Brogdon turned around on the mound and threw the ball to the 3B. The runner got in a pickle, and stalled until the batter reached 2nd – in scoring position – before he was tagged out. This was a standard play in 13-14 year-old Little League when I grew up.
There is more to playing defense then catching the ball when it’s hit to you.
The worst part is, Alfaro should have never thrown the ball. He could have let it roll foul.
“The outlook for Cooper is not yet clear.”
I don’t know. When the manager, Mattingly, says simply that it “didn’t look good” for either player, then the outlook is sadly clear.
These MLB players are like a bunch of paper tigers. I play in an over 55-year-old softball league and if our players did what Chisholm and Cooper did, they would have shaken it off and stayed in the game. Of course, we play for free and are thrilled we can get out of bed in the morning and live to see another day. These highly paid baseball players suffer from hurt feelings and they’re out for 3 weeks. Geez!