March 29th, 2022: Cole, Gonzalez, Torres, Severino, Montgomery, Chapman, Miller, Rosario

Over the weekend Brian Cashman confirmed the Yankees will offer Aaron Judge a long-term extension prior to Opening Day. “Obviously, he’ll receive an offer and all of our conversations will have taken place. It will either resolve in a multi-year deal, or it won’t,” Cashman told Bryan Hoch. Will it be a sincere offer or a “we tried” lowball offer? We’ll find out soon enough. Kris Bryant is three months older than Judge and he just signed a seven-year, $182M deal. Gotta figure any Judge offer will have to start there and adjust upward. Now let’s get to today’s post.

1. Grapefruit League observations. I didn’t realize this is a thing, but apparently Greg Bird might make the Blue Jays? They have an open bench spot and are looking at him as a lefty hitting first base/DH option. Bird hit a home run against the Yankees the other day (video). The guy would be a first ballot Grapefruit League Hall of Famer if such a thing existed. Anyway, here are some thoughts on the last few games.

Cole’s cutter

Gerrit Cole made his Grapefruit League debut over the weekend and looked fine. He gave up an absolute tank to Cole Tucker*, but his velocity was there (averaged 97.1 mph and topped out at 99.0 mph) and he got a bunch of swings and misses (eight on 20 swings). Cole looked like a veteran starter going through the Spring Training motions. Not much more to say than that.

* Here’s the homer. I wrote about Tucker as a possible trade target a few weeks ago and he is 3-for-7 with a triple and two homers against the Yankees this spring, and 3 for 11 with all singles against everyone else. Thanks for making me look smart in front of the people who read the Patreon and don’t watch non-Yankees games, Cole.

I do want to note that Cole threw two cutters among his 50 pitches, both to lefty batters. He’s never thrown a cutter, so this is a new pitch, and it fits the Yankees recent M.O. Luis Severino added a cutter last year and Mike King and Hayden Wesneski added cutters in the minors. Cole is not lacking weapons, but Spring Training is when you tinker, and he’s tinkering with a cutter.

I’m not going to bother making GIFs of the cutter because you can barely tell they’re cutters with the offset camera angle (here’s the first and here’s the second, we know they’re cutters because the pitch data says so), and I’m not sure this is a point of emphasis for Cole. Two cutters in 50 pitches indicates he’s messing around more than actively working to add it to his arsenal. Other than the cutter, Cole looked like Cole. No further notes.

“Overall, I got a lot of those pitches mostly defined,” Cole told Bryan Hoch following his start. “I was able to get some sliders over the plate, a strikeout, finishing guys with good fastballs. The changeup, I threw one really poor one that left the park. Outside of that, everything was executed well. We just couldn’t get them to be as aggressive as we wanted.”

Marwin’s spring

Marwin Gonzalez is gonna make the Opening Day roster, isn’t he? He is 3-for-8 with two homers through three Grapefruit League games, and he’s played four positions in the three games (first and second bases, shortstop, and left field). Aaron Boone is already talking up Gonzalez’s versatility, and he’s doing enough with the bat to make you pay attention.

“I don’t think you expect results right away like he’s gotten,” Boone told Dan Martin. “He got to that fastball (Sunday). That’s one of his calling cards. He didn’t do that as much last year.”

Boone’s not kidding when he says Gonzalez didn’t get to many fastballs last year. He hit .228 with a .379 SLG against fastballs in 2021. The league averages were .264 and .446, respectively. You have to go back to 2019 for the last time Gonzalez handled fastballs (.176 and .264 in 2020) and was remotely close to a league average hitter. There’s a reason he’s on a minor league deal.

Assuming Tim Locastro and his Major League contract make the Opening Day roster, there’s one open bench spot alongside the backup catcher and DJ LeMahieu (or whichever infielder sits on a given day). Miguel Andujar is the top 40-man roster candidate for that spot, but Marwin is the Proven Veteran™ with versatility, and those dudes tend to find their way onto rosters.

Gonzalez has an 87 wRC+ in his last 1,500 plate appearances and a 62 wRC+ in his last 500 plate appearances. I’d like to think the Yankees will not ignore that because he hit some spring dingers, but who knows. Marwin is a better version of Rougned Odor because he’s more versatile (or, if you prefer, a worse version of Tyler Wade because he won’t give you the same speed and glove), and I hope the Yankees have a higher bar than that. I guess we’ll find out.

Gleyber at short

I can’t be the only one who finds it amusing the Yankees went all-in on infield defense and run prevention this offseason yet a) didn’t bring in any pitchers, and b) are apparently okay with using Gleyber Torres as their backup shortstop. Seems like a thing you wouldn’t want to revisit after last season, but the Yankees haven’t closed the door on Torres at short.

Torres played shortstop over the weekend and made one of those plays where he does the hard part (in this case a lunging grab) but screws up the easy part (he forced a throw to first when he should have held onto the ball). Here’s the video. That’s Gleyber at shortstop in a nutshell, right? He does the difficult part that makes you believe, but not the routine stuff. So it goes.

My guess is that, despite Boone’s public proclamations, the Yankees don’t actually want to play Torres at short, and this weekend was just a “it’s Spring Training, so let’s get him a game or two over there” thing. If anything, the fact Gonzalez played short in his very first game is a sign the Yankees want to see if he can still do it so they can avoid putting Gleyber there.

There’s no harm in playing Torres at short in Spring Training. If something pops up during the regular season and you need him to play it, you don’t want it to be his first time at the position all year. But I don’t think the Yankees made all these moves to improve their infield defense only to put Gleyber back at short. They say he’s their backup shortstop and I’m gonna need to see it during the regular season to believe it.

Latest roster cuts

The Yankees announced their second round of roster cuts over the weekend and my unofficial count says they’re down to 46 players in big league camp. Here are the latest moves:

• IF Oswaldo Cabrera, SS Oswald Peraza, and OF Estevan Florial optioned to Triple-A Scranton.
• OF Michael Beltre, RHP Jimmy Cordero, C Rodolfo Duran, RHP Reggie McClain, RHP Vinny Nittoli, and OF Blake Perkins reassigned to minor league camp.

Cordero had Tommy John surgery last March and didn’t get into a game this spring, so he’s not ready to return to game action just yet. Cabrera socked a grand slam early in camp and didn’t do much otherwise. We’re gonna see him in the Bronx at some point this year. I’m sure of it.

The most notable move is Florial being optioned out, and I say that only because you could have talked yourself into believing he had a chance to make the Opening Day roster as a bench guy. With Locastro and Ender Inciarte in camp though, Florial making the team wasn’t likely. He needs to go to Triple-A and play everyday, and it looks like he will.

Miscellany

Luis Severino got smacked around pretty good the other day and his overall Spring Training line is ugly: 3.2 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 5 BB, 1 K in two starts. His velocity is where it needs to be (averaging 96.3 mph and topped out at 98.7 mph). Severino looks like a guy who needs to get his command locked in more than anything. He only has two more Grapefruit League starts to get it straightened out, but I think Severino will be fine (eventually). It might take him a little longer to settle in after all the injuries and long layoffs … Jordan Montgomery’s fastball ticked up closer to his 2021 average velocity in his second game over the weekend, though his average release point dropped another inch, so it’s now down three inches from last year. Maybe I’m making a big deal out of nothing? Very possible. Montgomery pitched well and actually missed bats this time, and looked more like himself. I guess I’ll keep monitoring … The Yankees used a four-man outfield against Robbie Grossman on Monday. Here’s a look (via Hoch):

That’s Torres standing in right field (right-right field?). We’ve seen teams use four-man outfields against the Yankees (most often Aaron Judge) and I’m curious to see whether the Yankees start doing it during the regular season. Austin Meadows is a perfect candidate for a four-man outfield because he has the second lowest ground ball rate in baseball since 2019 (30.9%). This could be a new thing … Joely Rodriguez, whose velocity was way down the other day, is dealing with a neck issue. That could (hopefully does) explain the velocity dip. “I don’t think it’s anything,” Boone told Martin. Rodriguez received treatment and threw in the bullpen the other day, so the neck issue can’t be too bad. We’ll see what he looks like whenever he gets back into a game … And finally, man on the scene Conor Foley posted a photo of Saturday’s lineups over in minor league camp. I bring this up only to note T.J. Sikkema pitched. I have no idea how he did or what he looked like, but just getting into a game is notable. Sikkema did not pitch at all in 2020 (pandemic) or 2021 (lat strain). He dropped out of my top 30 prospects this year, but if he’s healthy and looks good, I’ll have no trouble putting him back in. Sikkema was the No. 38 pick in the 2019 draft. The kid’s talented. He just has to stay on the field and get some innings.

2. Chapman’s usage. It took four years, but Aaron Boone finally realized Aroldis Chapman can be wild and ineffective when he goes several days between appearances. Boone recently said the Yankees plan to use Chapman in more non-save situations this season to ensure the team’s closer (yes, he’s still the closer) gets regular work and hopefully stays more consistent.

“It will serve him well at times and protect other guys at times,” Boone told Joel Sherman. “It will help us as a staff and keep Aroldis more regular rather than let him get to five, six days without pitching.”

Last season Chapman threw only 56.1 innings while Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Lucas Luetge were all over 70 innings (Green was over 80 innings). Distributing that workload a bit more evenly will help everyone, plus Chapman is an adventure when he goes too long between appearances. Here are his numbers since Boone took over as manager in 2018:

On one day of rest, Chapman’s your guy. He’s had a day to rest up but also worked recently, so he’s feeling strong and locked in mechanically. With three or more days of rest, woof. Hard to believe hitters can put up a .408 SLG and a 1.77 HR/9 (!) against a dude like Chapman in any situation. The eye test and/or stats can be deceiving, but in this case, they match very well.

“They spoke to me about it,” Chapman told Bryan Hoch about pitching in non-save situations. “They told me there are going to be some situations where I might get into the game in the eighth, depending. For me, at the end of the day, I’m here to pitch. Whatever works.”

The most obvious non-save situation to use Chapman would be the eighth inning on the road, when the Yankees are trailing in a close game. That’s a “keep the game close” situation, and this plan entails someone else being able to go out and get saves. I don’t think that will be an issue. Green and Loaisiga (and Clay Holmes?) are capable fill-in closers.

Any plan predicated on Boone showing a deft managerial touch makes me nervous, though the bullpen looks to be good enough and deep enough that he can go to the “wrong” guy in certain situations and still get away with it. The plan to use Chapman in non-save situations could turn this into the official meme of Boone’s 2022 bullpen management:

The biggest question here is Chapman’s ability to adjust and prepare for an inning that is not the ninth inning. Baseball players are creatures of habit and veteran closers love their routines. They know the ninth inning is their inning, so they need their last energy drink in this inning, they have to start stretching in that inning, so on and so forth. Chapman will have to figure that out.

This plan will depend on Chapman’s ability to adjust, other guys in the bullpen nailing down stray save chances, and Boone pulling the right strings. If the other relievers flop in save chances, the Yankees will adjust and use different relievers. If Chapman can’t figure out a routine or Boone keeps goofing, those are problems that aren’t solved quite as easily. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

Chapman’s issues when he goes too long between appearances have been obvious for a few years now, and I’m glad the Yankees are finally going to do something about it. Textbook better late than never situation. Saying you’re going to do something and actually doing it are different things, so hopefully Boone & Co. follow through and this makes the bullpen better overall.

“We think it’s something that’s going to serve him well, and certainly serve our staff as a whole,” Boone told Hoch. “We’ll try and overcommunicate. Hopefully it’ll provide a little more consistency with when he pitches, hopefully leading to him being more in tune, more consistent, and fluid.”

3. Latest roster moves. The Yankees made a few minor roster moves in recent days. Let’s run them down quickly now.

Yankees sign Shelby

Many moons ago trading rental Robinson Cano for Shelby Miller was an oft-discussed topic on RAB. It was never rumored or anything, but it was an idea that kinda sorta possibly made sense at the time. Nine years later, Miller is a Yankee. They signed him to a minor league deal with a big league invite over the weekend, the team announced.

“A guy that’s had success in the league," Aaron Boone told Brendan Kuty. “I remember seeing him a lot in St. Louis. A guy that had a lot of early success in his career as a starter. Hopefully we can unlock some things that provide us with some upside and that potential he’s had all along. We’ll see where we go with it from here."

Miller, now 31, was an All-Star with the Braves in 2015 and he hasn’t been good since, pitching to a 7.04 ERA (5.38 FIP) in 195.2 big league innings. He’s been better in the minors (3.63 ERA and 3.06 FIP in 139 innings) but eh, who cares. Last season Miller allowed 13 runs with more walks (11) than strikeouts (8) in 12.2 relief innings with the Cubs and Pirates.

There was some chatter about Miller adding a new slider last spring, and maybe the Yankees will continue working on that. They’ve had success getting players to improve their sliders the last year or two. Miller battled the yips a few years ago and has gone through several mechanical overhauls since his All-Star year in Atlanta. He’s very much a reclamation project/lottery ticket.

“I think it’s just about being efficient, being effective,” Miller told Bryan Hoch. “Everything data-wise and analytically these days is pretty good. I would say it’s probably the best it’s been in my career. It’s just about going out and getting hitters out, getting ahead in counts. I haven’t really been doing that a lot in the last couple of years. I’ve been walking guys and hurt myself in those situations.”

Squint your eyes and there are some spin rate/pedigree reasons to think Miller could turn things around. I’m not expecting much (or anything, really), but this is the organization that got 165.1 innings of 2.83 ERA ball out of afterthought signings Nestor Cortes and Lucas Luetge last year. Maybe the Yankees can get some mileage out of Shelby. For now, he’s just a roll of the dice.

Yankees claim Rosario

The Yankees have made twice as many waiver claims in the last week as in the previous 29 months combined. Last week they claimed (and lost) lefty reliever Yoan Aybar. This week they claimed outfielder Jeisson Rosario from the Red Sox. From Sept. 2019 through Feb. 2022, their only waiver claim was outfielder Jonathan Davis last August.

Boston designated Rosario for assignment last week to clear a 40-man roster spot for Trevor Story. The Rockies designated Aybar for assignment to clear a 40-man spot for Kris Bryant, and I gotta say, not signing top free agents but claiming the dudes who lost their roster spot to those top free agents feels very on-brand for the Hal Steinbrenner era Yankees.

ANYWAY, the 22-year-old Rosario is a no-performance/all-tools prospect who went from the Padres to the Red Sox in the Mitch Moreland trade two years ago. He hit .232/.335/.307 (84 wRC+) in 98 Double-A games in 2021. Here’s what Baseball America (subs. req’d) wrote when they ranked Rosario as the No. 26 prospect in Boston’s system at midseason last year:

Rosario is an electrifying athlete who can do standing backflips and throw with both hands, but his in-game contributions have been modest. His patience has created an extraordinary walk rate of nearly 15% for his career and a .376 on-base percentage but also results in late swing decisions that lead to grounders and weak, opposite-field contact. Evaluators are routinely frustrated by the infrequency with which he swings. He glides in center field with efficient routes and a solid arm, but his speed has ticked down from plus when he signed and now projects as average or slightly above. His above-average arm would fit in a corner spot, too … Rosario's most likely future is as a backup outfielder, but his youth still gives him time to reach a regular's ceiling.

Baseball America (subs. req’d) did not rank Rosario among their top 40 Red Sox prospects this spring and FanGraphs did not have him in their top 51 Red Sox prospects. So it’s safe to say he would not have factored into my top 30 prospects, not that I’ve thought much about it.

When the Yankees claimed Aybar last week, they immediately put him back on waivers and tried to slip him through. Had he cleared, he would have remained in the organization as a non-40-man roster player. I imagine they’ll try something similar with Rosario. The Yankees will need a 40-man spot for backup catcher Rob Brantly (and Marwin Gonzalez?) on Opening Day, so one way or another, Rosario’s days on the 40-man figure to be numbered.

Padres trade for Beaty

This is not Yankees-related but it is Axisa-related. The Dodgers traded Matt Beaty, a lefty bench bat who made sense for the Yankees, to the NL West rival Padres on Monday, the teams announced. San Diego sent River Ryan, last year’s 11th round pick, north in the trade. Ryan was a two-way player in college who the Dodgers are putting on the mound full-time.

The Yankees equivalent to Ryan is, well, one of those hard-throwers they took in the mid-to-late rounds last summer. Did the Yankees try for Beaty and the Dodgers just preferred Ryan, or did they not try at all? Beaty is not a needle-mover, but geez, we’re talking about Marwin Gonzalez possibly making the Opening Day roster. The margins of the roster can be improved. The Yankees will have to improve them with someone other than Beaty. Too bad.

4. Mining the news. A few pieces of Yankees-adjacent news caught my eye the last few days. Let’s dig in.

CBA changes luxury tax calculation for trades

Shoutout to Ben Clemens for catching this nugget buried in a Matt Gelb (subs. req’d) piece about Kyle Schwarber signing with the Phillies. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement changed the way luxury tax hits are calculated when players are traded in the middle of a multi-year contract. From Gelb:

However, under the new CBA, a traded contract is recalculated to reflect the remaining actual dollars. That means contracts that are backloaded will be harder to trade (if the acquiring team is concerned about the luxury tax threshold).

In the past, the luxury tax hit remained constant no matter how much money remained. Trade for a guy two years into a four-year, $40M contract and his luxury tax hit was $10M a year even if he made $1M the first three years and $37M in the last year. Recalculating the luxury tax hit based on the actual dollars remaining makes more sense, right? That’s what MLB is doing now.

Let’s use Giancarlo Stanton as an example. The Marlins signed him to a 13-year contract worth $325M back in the day. That’s a $25M luxury tax hit*. But, when the Yankees traded for Stanton, he had 10 years and $295M remaining on his contract, so his recalculated luxury tax hit would be $29.5M. Big difference! Do the Yankees take on Stanton at that number? Maybe not.

* Stanton’s actual luxury tax hit is $22M, not $25M, because the Marlins kicked in some money as part of the trade. Recalculating the luxury tax hit to reflect dollars paid by another team but not actual money remaining on the deal was one of those weird luxury tax quirks.

So few teams are up against the luxury tax threshold each year that I don’t think this will have a huge impact overall. For the Yankees, a team that is always flirting with the luxury tax threshold, yeah, this is a big deal! It changes the financial component of trades. No longer can the Yankees take on more real dollars in exchange for a lower luxury hit.

MLB cracking down on sticky stuff (again)

Apparently MLB caught wind that pitchers found ways to continue using foreign substances late last season, so the league is ramping up enforcement. MLB sent out a memo detailing the heightened inspection protocols last week. From Tom Verducci:

Beginning in spring training games this weekend and throughout the season, umpires will inspect a pitcher’s hand, top and bottom, when conducting random between-innings inspections. Umpires can still examine a pitcher’s hat, belt and glove, as was done last season starting in June.

…

(MLB vice president of on-field operations Mike Hill) continued in the memo, “If an umpire observes a pitcher attempt to wipe off his hands prior to an inspection he may be subject to immediate ejection.”

Did they really not check the pitcher’s hand last year? That seems like literally the first thing you should check. Anyway, as Rob Arthur (subs. req’d) detailed in October, league-wide spin rates initially dipped following the crackdown last summer, then rose again later in the season. They rose in such a way that strongly suggested sticky stuff was being used. MLB ain’t having it.

Fair or not, Gerrit Cole is the face of the sticky stuff era, though I will again note he was really good after the crackdown: 3.28 ERA (2.87 FIP) in his first 13 post-crackdown starts, including the 129-pitch shutout in Houston and the 15-strikeout game in Anaheim. It wasn’t until Cole hurt his hamstring in September that things went south.

Anyway, MLB is working on a sticky ball prototype similar to the ball used in Japan, and also on a stickier rosin. Pitchers are using the new rosin in Spring Training and giving the league feedback. This is going to wind up being a big cat and mouse chase, isn’t it? MLB cracks down, pitchers find a new way to use sticky stuff, MLB cracks down again, pitchers find another new way to use sticky stuff, on and on. It is what it is.

MLB moving second base in the minors

According to Jayson Stark (subs. req’d), MLB is moving second base as part of their rule change experiments in the minors this year. They’re bringing the base inward (so closer to home plate) and it will reduce the distance between first and second, and second and third, roughly 13.5 inches. The goal is to incentivize stolen bases and more aggressive baserunning.

Moving second base is a significant change but it makes sense when you look at the current layout of the infield (diagram from MLB’s official rulebook):

See how first base, third base, and home plate are nestled neatly into the corner of the 90-foot square? Second base is not. The square goes to the center of second base. All MLB is doing is bringing second base in so it also fits into the corner of the square like every other base.

I’ll be completely honest with you, I had no idea the infield was laid out the way it is. I thought the square went to the back corner of every base. I didn’t realize it went to the center of second. So, bring second base in. Let’s do it. Test it in the minors first of course, but I am in favor of things that create more action on the field. This seems like a perfectly reasonable change.

Humidors in all 30 parks

Beginning this season baseballs will be stored in humidors in all 30 ballparks, according to Eno Sarris. Last season 10 teams used a humidor in their home park: Astros, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Mariners, Marlins, Mets, Rangers, Red Sox, and Rockies. Now the Yankees and the other 19 teams will join them.

Long story short, the humidor brings the balls to average humidity, so it dries them out in a wet park and “wets” them in a dry park. The more dry the ball, the more it carries, and the more wet the ball, the more it’s deadened. In most MLB cities the humidor won’t matter much, if it all. It’ll only make a meaningful difference in really humid (like Florida, even in a dome) or really dry (like Arizona) climates.

A uniform baseball that plays the same from ballpark to ballpark and season to season is a thing Rob Manfred’s league seems unable (or unwilling) to provide, though the humidor is a small step in that direction. New York summers can be humid but they’re not Florida swamp humid, and even if the ball doesn’t carry as much in Yankee Stadium as in the past, how would we even be able to tell it's the humidor? The ball plays differently every year.

Yankees again ranked as most valuable MLB franchise

Forbes released their annual MLB franchise valuations last week and, surprise surprise, the Yankees rank No. 1. They’ve ranked No. 1 every year since Forbes started doing these lists 25 years ago. The gap between the Yankees and the No. 2 team is the same as the gap between No. 2 and No. 9. The top five (to be clear, the Forbes valuations are estimates):

1. Yankees: $6 billion
2. Dodgers: $4.075 billion
3. Red Sox: $3.9 billion
4. Cubs: $3.8 billion
5. Giants: $3.5 billion

Furthermore, the Yankees are the world’s second most valuable sports franchise, trailing only the Dallas Cowboys ($6.5 billion). The Yankees were valued at $4 billion in 2018, so business is good, pandemic or no pandemic. The franchise valuation is not the same thing as a potential sale price, but the Yankees remain a financial behemoth. No reason to think otherwise.

5. Remembering a random Yankee: Garrett Cooper. Our run of 2017 Yankees continues with another request, and is a player who had the ingredients to go down as an out of nowhere success story had he stuck around a little longer. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Cooper grew up in a Los Angeles suburb and was not drafted out of high school. He played two years at El Camino College before transferring to Auburn, where he hit .340/.452/.503 with 12 homers in two seasons. That made Cooper one of the most attractive college seniors in the 2013 draft. The Brewers took him in the sixth round and paid him a $30,000 signing bonus.

Despite being an older prospect, Cooper’s climb up the minor league ladder was relatively slow, and Baseball America never once ranked him among their top 30 Brewers prospects (or any team's top 30 prospects, for that matter). He did not reach Double-A for good until 2016, his age 25 season, and it wasn’t until 2017 that Cooper really jumped onto the radar as someone who could contribute at the MLB level.

In 2017, Cooper hit .366/.428/.652 with 17 homers in 75 games with Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs, a hitter’s paradise. The Yankees had a revolving door at first base that year. Greg Bird and random Yankee Chris Carter were supposed to platoon at first, but Bird got hurt and Carter stunk, and others like Tyler Austin and Rob Refsnyder didn’t move the needle.

The Yankees were very aggressive in the weeks leading up to the 2017 trade deadline and their first move was acquiring Cooper from the Brewers. They sent up-and-down lefty reliever Tyler Webb to Milwaukee in the 1-for-1 trade. Cooper was one of the first “they got him because he puts up big exit velocities” trades, as at least as far as we knew.

"I focused a lot more on putting balls in the air," Cooper told Bryan Hoch after the trade (he had a 44.1% ground ball rate that year after sitting north of 50% earlier in his career). "You hear a lot of people say, 'Oh, you're playing in Colorado, the (Pacific Coast League) is a hitter's league.' I think I made a big step in my career, putting more balls in the air this year."

The Yankees called Cooper up immediately after the trade – “The bar has been set very low,” Brian Cashman told Hoch about first base after the Cooper trade – and he made his MLB debut at Fenway Park on July 14th. He went 0-for-8 with five strikeouts before recording his first hit, a double against David Price. Here’s the video.

Bird suffered a setback the very next day, ending his season. That did two things. It opened at-bats for Cooper in the short-term, and also had Cashman & Co. scouring the trade market. Two days later they made the big White Sox trade, which brought in Todd Frazier to play third base and pushed Chase Headley over to first. Cooper was suddenly an extra body.

On July 17th, the day Bird’s setback was announced, Cooper went 3-for-4 with two doubles in Minnesota. Some time on the bench and some time in Triple-A followed. Cooper was called back up in early August when Matt Holliday had back trouble, and from Aug. 8-10 in Toronto, Cooper went on a three-game rampage: 8-for-12 with two doubles. Here’s the video.

"You don't have a lot of time to think about the pitcher, who we just saw in Triple-A, (starter Nick Tepesch) and (reliever Taylor Cole). It was nice knowing what he was going to throw and seeing how he pitched down there, having a plan to know what he's going to do up here,” Cooper told Hoch following his four-hit game on Aug. 9th, the first four-hit game by a Yankees rookie since Joe Collins in 1950. “Ever since getting that first hit out of the way, I've felt like I was back down in Triple-A. That's the biggest thing in coming up here, is just trying not to do too much in each at-bat."

The Toronto hot streak was essentially the end of Cooper’s time in pinstripes. He played only two more big league games that season and went 0-for-6, then went down with a hamstring injury. On Aug. 24th, the Yankees got into that big brawl with the Tigers in Detroit, and Cooper ran on the field despite being on the injured list. That’s a no-no and he was slapped with a fine. Here’s the video and here’s a screen grab:

Cooper wore No. 64 and he’s a massive dude (listed at 6-foot-5 and 235 lbs.). You can spot him holding people back and whatnot at various points during the brawl. Anyway, Cooper’s hamstring got healthy enough in time to get at-bats during the Double-A postseason, though he did not receive a Sept. call up. He went 14-for-43 (.326) with five doubles and one triple in 13 games with the Yankees.

The Yankees were again counting on Bird going into 2018, plus they still had Austin, so Cooper was the odd man out at first base. At the Rule 5 Draft protection deadline on Nov. 20th, Cooper was packaged with lefty Caleb Smith and sent to the Marlins for Mike King and $250,000 in international bonus money. The Yankees opened two 40-man roster spots with the trade and also maxed out their bonus pool in advance of the Shohei Ohtani chase.

King’s a nice piece for the Yankees now and Cooper’s been really good for the Marlins the last three seasons, hitting .282/.357/.461 (121 wRC+) with 30 homers in 804 plate appearances. His 91.1 mph average exit velocity last season was in the same neighborhood as Christian Yelich (91.0 mph), Ketel Marte (91.1 mph), and Max Muncy (91.2 mph). The guy can hit!

Cooper got Brian Robertsed at first base last July (video) and needed Tommy John surgery on his non-throwing elbow. He is healthy now and slated to share time at first base with Jesus Aguilar, and also at DH and in the outfield corners with Jorge Soler and Avisail Garcia. His $2.5M arbitration salary this season will push his career earnings north of $5M. Not bad for a senior sign out of college.

The Dodgers wanted Cooper last spring and they’re not dumb. He’s a dude. The Yankees don’t need another righty bat and they’re pretty well set at first base and DH (and in the outfield corners), though who knows what they’ll need a year or two down the road. Perhaps it’ll come full circle and Cooper winds up back in pinstripes. Would be pretty neat.

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)