June 25: The Orioles have now announced the signing.
June 24: The Orioles are bringing in first baseman Garrett Cooper on a minor league contract, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (X link). The Ballengee Group client presumably head to Triple-A Norfolk as he awaits his next MLB opportunity.
Cooper is on his third organization of the 2024 season. The righty-hitting first baseman signed a minor league deal with the Cubs and broke camp. While he turned in an impressive .270/.341/.432 batting line with Chicago, the front office was alarmed by his 13 strikeouts in 41 plate appearances. The Cubs designated Cooper for assignment and dealt him to the Red Sox in a cash trade.
The regression that the Cubs anticipated indeed came to pass in Boston. Cooper hit only .171/.227/.229 in 75 trips to the plate. Boston DFA him and released him a couple weeks ago. The former All-Star has lingered on the free agent market since then. The Yankees reportedly showed some interest after losing Anthony Rizzo to injury. New York opted for a different righty-hitting corner infielder/designated hitter, acquiring J.D. Davis from the A’s yesterday.
Baltimore doesn’t present the cleanest path back to the big leagues for Cooper. The O’s have arguably the deepest lineup in the majors. Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan Mountcastle respectively have first base and designated hitter secured. Baltimore has Anthony Santander and Colton Cowser as their main corner outfield tandem, while Austin Hays and Heston Kjerstad are also in the mix. It might take an injury for Cooper to get a look at Camden Yards.
At the very least, the minor league deal gives him an opportunity to try to find his rhythm against Triple-A pitching. Cooper has struggled offensively over the past year and a half, largely because of an uptick in his strikeouts. He’s a .242/.297/.395 hitter since the start of the 2023 campaign. Between 2019-22, Cooper was an effective middle-of-the-lineup presence for the Marlins. He hit .274/.350/.444 over that stretch.
WS bound, that seals it
LMFAO!
Block Yank Me from getting him.
Duh. The Yankees had already JD Davis. So no blocking involved.
Career renaissance inbound!
1B?!? Not where I thought the O’s needed help.
Mountcastle on the move? He’s the one guy in the org that could get Orioles some pitching. Still young (UFA 2027), cheap, proven league level thumper.
Time for Birds to give O’Hearn shot as regular 1st basemen anyways.
Ryan to the Rockies for Gomber, Vodnik and that Vargas prospect. Should work, but if not, add Bencoseme who is blocked.
Mountcastle to the Yankees for Gleyber Torres.
Lol no. Gleybergarbage.
O’Hearn is older than Mountcastle and not signed long term. It would be more of a move to open up 1B for one of the younger slugging bats and if Basallo rises through the organization, 1B may be his home if the O’s keep Adley.
Basallo seems like our most likely chip. No way we take Mounty’s bat out of our lineup.
A starter is needed though.
Mountcastle’s new contract is right around the corner, you have a lot of young up and coming sluggers that profile as corner INF/OF bats.
I would say your most valuable trade chip right now is Mountcastle. Santander might also be one and the preferred move in my mind because he’s on his final year. His stock is down right now because of the early slump. The Orioles have in house replacements for both 1B and RF.
Basallo is too young to give up on right now and I am not sure how other organizations view him at this point.
Padres wish they have Garrett Cooper to play RF for a couple weeks.
Blocking the Yanks is all, I think
I’d be fine with that too.
He was a free agent. No blocking involved. In fact, the article even mentions that the Yankees kicked the tires and went with J.D. Davis instead.
Nah. As others noted, they passed on him.
He couldn’t beat out Dom Smith in Boston, that should say a lot. Baltimore absolutely needs starting pitching, they been killed by the injury bug. I do think that they are preparing to trade Mountcastle at least for MLB quality starting pitching. For the right deal, I wouldn’t be surprised if they consider trading Jackson Holliday if they thought it could get them past New York. The window for the O’s is now, that lineup is deadly they don’t need great pitching just ok pitching.
the window for the o’s should be open for about the same time as the astros and the rays has been. the team is run like a combination of the two orgs, and while burnes is extremely important they do have the prospect depth and player evaluation skills to acquire another top pitcher as needed. their whole MO is to not mortgage the future for the now so i would be incredibly surprised if they pushed all their chips in on this year
The new ownership has money, but are they going to spend it? You got players now approaching arbitration that need to be paid. They do seem set up nicely though, but they failed last year, they need to get at least to the ALCS or it’s going to be in their heads in 2025.
@pohle Agreed that the org will probably prioritize the long game, especially given the injury bad luck this year.
The Burnes move itself could net a comp pick if he rejects the QO this offseason. The O’s have made a habit lately of hedging with their moves (like the option years on Coulombe and O’Hearn…both looked like no-brainers until Danny got hurt).
So you think trading Ryan Mountcastle and/or Jackson Holliday for OK pitching is a good idea? Thank God for Mike Elias!!!
Definitely on board for trading Mouncastle. And okay with getting a couple of “OK” pitching with small injury history footprint in return for him. Beats getting a one or 2 with an injury history … which has too often been the case this season.
They are not moving Holliday at all. He is an untouchable. Mountcastle can be replaced easily enough in the short term at least.
The only guy they’d trade them for is Skenes. And that ain’t happening
They are not trading Jackson for anything. Period.
Jaskson Holliday is untouchable. They aren’t going to move him for a half season rental.
Wow!! The Orioles won the bidding war for Cooper, edging out the penny-pinching Yankees.
Wise move by the Yankees.
You win by playing within the margins of the roster. You pan a lot of gravel to find that chunk of gold.