On the heels of an overnight splash on the free agent market, here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye out for today:
1. Cooper nearing a decision?
One area of the free agent market that remains fairly deep as Spring Training begins is the first base market, where the likes of Joey Votto, Brandon Belt, and Donovan Solano linger as available options. According to Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald, the list of available veteran first baseman in free agency could thin out a bit in the coming days, as he writes that slugger Garrett Cooper “could make a decision soon” with around five teams in the market for the 33-year-old’s services. Cooper struggled somewhat in 2023, slashing a slightly-below-average .251/.304/.419 in 123 games with the Marlins and Padres last year.
Prior to that dip in production last year, however, Cooper had established himself as a reliably above-average hitter at first base who could also moonlight in the outfield corners. From 2019-22, Cooper slashed .274/.350/.444. The righty-swinging slugger sports a notable platoon split for his career, as he’s hit .286/.338/478 (120 wRC+) against lefties and .262/.337/.417 versus righties (107 wRC+). It’s solid production against pitchers of both handedness, but he’s been particularly potent against southpaws. Speculatively speaking, Cooper could be a sensible target for clubs like the Red Sox, Pirates, or Guardians which struggled against left-handed pitching last year and could use another veteran bat in the mix for reps in a corner spot.
2. Preller to hold spring presser:
Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller is set to be made available to the media at noon CT today, per a team announcement. The Padres have faced a great deal of upheaval this offseason as they watched three-time Reliever of the Year award winner Josh Hader and rotation arms Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, and Nick Martinez all depart via free agency. Reigning NL Cy Young award winner Blake Snell is likely to follow them out the door, setting the stage for further turnover, but as of now he remains unsigned. To help address the club’s sudden exodus of pitching talent, Preller dealt superstar slugger Juan Soto to the Yankees back in December alongside center fielder Trent Grisham.
That left San Diego to enter camp with just two outfielders on the club’s 40-man roster in Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jose Azocar, though the club did reunite with Jurickson Profar yesterday on a one-year deal to help fill out its outfield mix somewhat. Still, with question marks remaining in the outfield, at DH, and in the rotation, plenty of uncertainty remains for the Padres as Spring Training begins. Preller’s presser this afternoon could begin to shed some light on the club’s plans for those areas headed into the season.
3. MLBTR Chat:
While teams around the league gear up for Spring Training, a handful of the winter’s top free agents remain unsigned and plenty of offseason shopping lists around the league remain unfulfilled. Are you wondering if there’s more in store for your team as camps open in Arizona and Florida? If so, tune in this afternoon when MLBTR’s Steve Adams hosts a live chat with readers at 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, and that same link will allow you to join in on the chat once it begins or read the transcript after its completed.
“Slugger” Garrett Cooper
Garrett Cooper isn’t a star, but I think he’s an underrated value. Not bad defensively, and a pretty high floor based on his career stats and periphs.
He isnt horrible, I just find it funny we are calling him a slugger. That used to be a word we associated with Barry Bonds and Stanton.
No, those were “cheater” and “overpaid”.
Slugger? Harmon Killebrew. Pete Alonso.
Sluggers can still be overpaid. Pete will likely be overpaid.
whyhayzee combined “cheater” and “overpaid” … Pete isn’t both. He will be overpaid, but there aren’t many that have his power.
Nobody is overpaid since that’s what the owners ok to give them. The salaries are ridiculous just to play a game, but the fact is, the sport generates billions. So if the players, who make the sport generate the billions, didn’t get the money, the owners would just stick it in their pockets and every once in awhile beg their city/taxpayers to fund a new stadium so they can sit on their money.
Bonds “cheater”, Stanton “overpaid”, Alonso “slugger”. Yes, Pete is likely to be overpaid.
Why call him cheater. I bet if you juice up you can’t make contact with the ball. So be quiet
Yzee
Probably because Bonds broke the rules
You probably couldn’t square up a 90+ slider, but that doesn’t mean the Astros didn’t cheat
Stupid logic on your part.
Bonds was a slugger before he juiced, so the origional post was accurate.
Us fans are the fools for allowing pricing to get so out of wack. We don’t buy merch, tickets or packages to watch and it all goes away. it’s frustrating for true fans to not know how to view a game. is it a Peacock exclusive? Amazon? Apple? Is it exclusive and blacked out on my local RSN that I’ve already paid for?
Get lost. cheaters ruined the sport. aYes there have always been but not like what happened in the last 20 – 30 years. Please don’t bring up greenies which were medically provided and for all to see. Dwight Evans, Reggie Smith, Thurman Munson and so many more belong in the HOF yet thr HOSers stats dwarf theirs and writers have let so many in who should not be in in my opinion. I no longer watch the ceremony when I used to watch at least the highlights.
He didn’t have big time power till later in career. Good fielder,big ego.
what is a slugger? Bonds hit 46 HRs at age 28 (before juice)
I’ve never bought this argument that “nobody is overpaid” if someone offers them the money. If I pay top dollar for a knockoff Rolex, did I overpay…or is the watch now “worth” what I paid? If I sign Anthony Rendon coming off a fine season to a long term contract, are you telling me at his current level of production, he’s not “overpaid?” If I have to pay down 3/4 of, say, Giancarlo Stanton’s contract in order to get someone to take him, is that not proof he’s ‘overpaid?”
We can argue over whether players IN GENERAL deserve a larger piece of the pie, but I think there are plenty of examples in which a player is/was overpaid.
Your particular watch doesn’t bring you money tho. The players are completely responsible for bringing in the cash. And with Rendon, they’re paying him based off what he did. They know there’s going to be risk of injury and def decline, particularly in the back half of the deal. Sometimes they’ll pay a player based off what he will do, if he’s young. Take Ohtani for example, you think he’ll be putting up numbers in 2043, lol?
How much money is Rendon bringing to the Angels?
$38mil?
Bonds: “Greatest Hitter of all Time”. The majority of hitters, and some pitchers, were using steroids during his era, and he still towered above them all.
Whether or not they based their contract offer on what he’d done in the past, that doesn’t negate the fact that Rendon is overpaid.
That’s my point: there are plenty of players who are overpaid. In fact, an argument could easily be made that if 29 teams don’t think a player is worth X amount and one owner does, that player may be overpaid even then. Just because you find one sucker or fool willing to pay you a certain amount, that doesn’t mean you aren’t overpaid.
Again, this has nothing to do with whether players as a group are overpaid or not.
Devl and D-N
You guys are arguing 2 different things
Market value and the value of their performance. Market value sets the price to sign a player. If you have to pay player X Y dollars to sign, that’s their value. If player X then produces Z dollars, then that’s either over/under (or equal) payment.
Are you guys talking about market value or value of performance? You need to decide that before you argue.
K
You know, or argue just to argue
Which, the internet has a name for that…
Tell us about your career, Slugger.
Yeah, who?
Rando with a sub 100 OPS+ is “nearing a decision”. First time I’ve ever heard this guy mentioned in the offseason.
jt
Cooper is almost certainly better at his career than you are at yours
He’s almost certainly more famous as well.
You’re the rando,, not him
lol relax man
Try reading the article.
This is good news. Once Garrett Cooper signs, he’ll stop holding up the free agent market
I didn’t know there was a market for Garrett Cooper. I also didn’t know he has a career wRC+ of 110. His market value is $6.9M/yr.
nice
Production has never been a question mark for Cooper, but he has frequently been on the IL – at least once a year every year – which is why the teams interested are probably not looking at him as a full time lineup fixture. I’d like to see CLE install him as full time DH, but he’d have to be willing to work for food – ramen specifically.
@solaris602
Way too many guys who are skilled to be DHs but not full-time players.
I love the late career resurgence for Barrels. I’m curious which current players in their 20s are lacking now, but will dominate in their 30s.
Dwight Evans in his 20’s, OPS .808
Dwight Evans in his 30’s, OPS .863
wh
Not the right way to look at it
1) don’t use OPS
2) if you insist on using OPS, use OPS+ to account for changes in the league
3) use wRC+, though,
I thought he looked “old” last year. $7M/ yr hmmm…
Brew, I’d still take him at 4-5 on a 1 or 2 year deal to fill a spot on SD’s 26 man. Maybe lower AAV with a player option or incentives. The big thing here is it allows a prospect to get more seasoning – I’d say the same for Profar signing. The urgency for Merrill in LF disappeared.
Now, if Merrill hits his way onto the OD roster I’m all for that happening.
My flight for Phoenix leaves on 3/2 – woo hoo!!
Well, they clearly need a DH/1B L-bat via FA or trade. I’ve followed his solid career, just seemed like his bat speed was slower last year. I’m surprised the article doesn’t list Pads as one of the teams interested. And dang you LT! Have fun! I’m hoping to get to Peoria in a few weeks but in the grind at the univ. until then.
I misread your post as saying my flight leaves for Phx in 32 minutes. hey 3/2 I might be there just after that.
This website has little to no structure. It’s all over the place and all the articles are conflicting and you never know if it will be a day of star players who generate a lot of interest or random no names who just take up the bulk of the homepage and is annoying to skim through
Also, please hire professional writers. The amount of grammatical and punctual errors is insane. Jesus man cmon
MLBTR is a free site depending on add revenue. If you want to bytch that this isn’t pulitzer prize journalism than start by paying cash and sub to the Athletic or your local newspaper.
There’s little to no variation on here
It’s the same format every post. They talk about the bio of a player briefly and then just copy and paste a bunch of obnoxious BR stats that are an eyesore to look at and read
You’re contributing to the stereotype of ankle biters simply being annoying yappers .
You think Pomeranians are annoying because of what people say. You’re dumb
Painting with a broad brush
Pomeranians are the cutest things ever and the ones I know are funny and nice
I was actually not serious. But the concept of companion breeds is a bit silly.
What if I want to bytch that Pulitzer was a terrible force in journalism and its crazy we still hold his name in high regard?
@cute: perhaps, and I am just spitballing here, the title of the site MLB Trade Rumors is the giveaway? Re: professional writers. These fellows pump out a tremendous amount of product daily. The occasional typo is inevitable. C’mon?
Copy and pasting a bunch of numerical eye sore stats from BR isn’t hard to do
As far as the typos, it shows they don’t proof read or give a crap before posting it. They just want to post as many articles as possible
If it troubles you so much, why don’t you set up your own website and do your own writing, so that the site looks exactly like how you want it to.
Cute Pomeranian lyved down to its bytch name.
A nasty yap with little substance behind it, then a wee piddle before night-night.
Cringe
Indeed you were.
Be more like Stout Scottie. That bad boy knows how to critique journalists.
You’re cringe
Well, I like it.
We’ll all miss ya. Bye!
Your kind of logic is why this website is becoming ancient
“People don’t like our format or way of doing things? Ok see ya. We won’t change anything and will do things the way we want regardless of constructive criticism trying to convey opinions on how to better cater our services to those who point out their frustration”
That’s called being a close minded dbag. Steve Adams knows a lot about being a dbag because I’ve seen him get into with commenters on this site tons of times
Nick Deeds
“he’s hit .286/.338/478 (120 wRC+) against lefties and .262/.337/.417 versus righties (107 wRC+)”
Yay!!! wRC+
“sports a notable platoon split”
Are you sure that that’s notable. I’d guess it’s about average.
It could be notable. We don’t know the amount of variance in the population.
wh
Right, we don’t know. So, why should they say it is notable? Nick?
From this 2010 FG article
“From 2007 to 2009, the average wOBA split for left-handed hitters was about 8.6%, and for right-handed hitter, about 6.1% (following The Book [I think], ”
Soler’s split percentage is:
(.365-.331) .034.
.034/.340 = 10%
So, a bit higher than the league average (in the late 2000’s. Maybe it changed. I don’t know). I’d guess that’s within one standard deviation, but, of course, I don’t know, so, not really notable.
Where’s our daily Dodgers sign Clayton Kershaw article?
It’s right there with “Red Sox Interested In ___”
@JimmyCatfish
I think they signed the lefty but he’s now going to pitch with his right hand, so he’ll be good for another 10 years. It’s like getting a rookie pitcher.
Maybe the yappy dog and the catfish could run off and start their own site instead of coming on one everyday and mocking the content?
Bums me out that the Pirates rushed to sign Tellez when Belt is still there for the taking at this point.
Cooper is an interesting player—I’d like to see an article about ones like him–can play the position, can hit a bit, but not so good as you can’t replace him, better than a AAAA player, but not quite the player who could force more playing time for himself unless there was an injury. Over 1600 career PA, 4.2 BWAR. A good depth guy, won’t embarrass himself, just not special.
Preller going to do a presser to gloat about signing Profar
Most people, myself included, thought the Padres would spend the money they saved in the Soto deal to round out their team. It doesn’t appear they are going to do that.
They might be wise not to spend every $ and keep some for trade deadline maneuvering.
Typically when a team sells at the trade deadline they take away salary they don’t add to it.
typically if they are sellers, and in their case Kim would be the likely sell.
But they could still be in playoff hunt and be buyers, where flexibility under the CBT would be wise.
It’s not being wise it’s that they don’t have the money.
I am a Cardinals fan. One of the greatest historical teams in all of baseball. And do you know how many times they have paid the luxury tax? Not once. What the Padres were doing before was never sustainable.
I think it’s going to be a long year for my team and your team both.
Yeah some of my favorite all teams teams were some of those old St L teams.
Few teams have enjoyed the likes of Seidler, but the Pads aren’t the only team to exceed CBT of late. Personally I wish big spending teams would be penalized more than they are and there was more spending equity among teams.
I’m not sure anyone fully knows what’s sustainable in San Diego, they’ve energized the fanbase by going for it, we’ll see how things go if this is a sub-.500 year. The expectations in SD are not close to those from the StL fanbase. There is a component of the fanbase that used to support the cuddly last place Padres no matter how bad they were, but the city has grown so much and with NFL and NBA gone I think they will continue to draw well, just fans of MLB wanting to see baseball. If they can get to the playoffs every other year, or third, they might keep the fans here happy
I suspect that Preller would rather hold onto the few dollars he has for contingincies. Going into opening day with 101% of budget committed, is a tough gig for a GM. He likely wants to take a look at the prospects and play the trade market before spending their last pennies.
I’m not concerned about Preller’s lack of winter activity. He has a pretty good track record for making late trades and late signings. Some have worked extraordinarily well. A few (Cruz, Carpenter) bombed, but no one really thought those were poor signings at the time. Certainly he’d love to have the money back they spent on Carpenter (or Hosmer, for that matter), given their current budget, but that’s water over the bridge.
The double $ whammy (TV contract, no playoff money), plus losing Seidler, just sucks. It’s just gonna be one of those lean years, but it doesn’t mean that the 2024 Pads can’t compete. We’ll see how it all plays out.
The Padres couldn’t make the playoffs with Soto, Snell and Hader.
Who is their starting outfield?
Who are their starting 5 pitchers?
Short of some major moves that seem unlikely at this point this team isn’t good enough to compete.
“That’s why they play the games”, right?
Soto (walked his way to RISP), Snell (walked his way to exiting in the 5th), and Hader (walked off the mount after 3 outs per week limit). And so without those winners you’re suggesting to Tatis, Musgrove, Machado, Bogaerts, Kim, Darvish and King and a seemingly improved bullpen that AJ just punt the season and not compete this year?
People don’t understand what all in means in a sports context. The Padres were all in the last couple years because the owner was dying. Now that he’s passed the team has to actually play within their means again.
Being 500 sucks. That’s where my team and your team is headed I believe.
Who cares what people think? Due to issues you mentioned and CBT reset, the Pads are reloading for 2025 and hoping this time to restock from minors, but with so many long-term contracts on the hoof sort of means they still have to compete for real for WC spot, with a lower chance of getting there to be sure. Who’s your team again? Cardinals? Giants? Mets?
If the Padres were reloading for 2025 why did they trade for King? The Padres are trying to compete just like my team the Cardinals are doing but anyone can see its not gonna work.
I didn’t say they were punting on 2024. A team with Tatis, Musgrove, Bogey, Darvish, Kim, Machado etc.. is going to compete for playoffs. And King will be on the team in 2025, so will Thorpe, Vasquez and Brito? Plus Snelling, maybe Iriarte, Marsee, Merrill, etc… Soto won’t be a Padre, maybe StL will sign him haha
Prellar you’ve got a lot to explain to those fans of yours. If I’m him at this point all my interactions with the public media or any general relations are through zoom calls. No way I’m putting my face out there and explaining to San Diego how I’ve ruined the team, bankrupted the franchise. Traded my future for the same generational talent I move a year after and still keeping my job in the process. Prellars got to go. Plain and simple.
A brand new troll, or a re-tread?
Any speculation, folks? (Lol, some times more interesting speculating about the idiot trolls on MLBTR, than what’s NOT going on, on a boring day in off season baseball.)
the re-treads are multiplying faster than tribbles
While I do respect is my elders. I don’t respect idiocracy and Incompetence. Prellar has literally turned this team from the best show in baseball to being in the bottom of the division if not for Colorado. If you want to defend the village idiot go for it. I certainly won’t and the fans of San Diego shouldn’t either.
I’ll take the bait, and partly agree. Many of the contracts disbursed by Preller are questionable at best, From an outside view, the one thing I’ve admired his ability to sign international free agents and draft well, building up their minor league system to the point where they can trade everyone and then rebuild it again in short order..
I also recognize his mode of operation this off season is predicated on reducing salary, so I can’t really blame him for that.