Miami Marlins: Garrett Cooper’s Bat is on Fuego, is That a Good Thing?

The Miami Marlins won on Saturday night against the Mets with a walk-off 2-run HR.

It was a great performance for Garrett Cooper, accounting for 3 of the Miami Marlins 7 hits in the game. This is also the 3rd straight game Cooper has hit a HR.

Beginning on May 16th, Cooper has had 3 HR, 1 triple, 5 RBIs, and hit for a .450 AVG. It’s great to see Cooper turning a corner this year after batting .205 for his first 36 games. Now he has raised his average to .242 in a 5 game span.

While it is great for fans to see our utility player’s bat come alive as of late, I’m sure it has muddied the water for the Marlins in one particular fashion.

How do the Miami Marlins get Jesus Sanchez into the lineup now?

Jesus Sanchez has been otherworldly. While playing for the Jumbo Shrimp down in Triple-A, his numbers currently look like this: 7 HR, 20 RBIs, .467 AVG, 1.433 OPS. Sanchez is obviously swinging a very-hot bat, but where is there room on the big league team?

Starling Marte appears to be coming back to the lineup soon, and he was the Marlins most reliable hitter until his rib injury sidelined him.

Adam Duvall provides power that the Marlins desperately need, as evident by his 8 current HRs ranking second on the team. Duvall provides that extra “pop” in the lineup as he finished tied for 7th in the MLB HR race last year with 16, and should help a Miami Marlins team that is currently ranked 25th in baseball in HRs this year with 43.

Corey Dickerson has batted at a .284 AVG this year which happens to also be his career AVG. The league batting average this year is .237, making himself an above-average hitter by a fair amount. It would behoove a middling offense like the Marlins to keep a proven commodity out on the field.

Cooper was supposed to be arguably the odd man out, batting in the low .200s for the season until this week.

Last week, it seemed that Cooper was going to give up his utility spot to see what Sanchez can do on the big stage. For now, it seems we will have to wait a bit longer.