Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series No. 26: Garrett Cooper

Admit it, Miami Marlins fans.

If the Marlins announced tomorrow that they were giving Garrett Cooper a spring training invite, you'd give a small sigh of relief over first base in 2026.

No? Well, perhaps you're right, although it's hard to argue that Miami feels any closer today to solving the first base riddle they had when Cooper began to fall off the proverbial cliff in 2023. Trade deadline pickups Josh Bell and Jake Burger worked out at the time- less so in 2024, and both gone by 2025. Come to think of it, even Bell would look pretty good right now.

Anyway, we digress. This stop on the Marlin Maniac Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series is about celebrating Cooper, the best No. 26 in team history by the measure of Marlins WAR. It's a feat he pulls off with a 4.5 WAR finish for the South Florida portion of his career, with his 52 Marlins home runs ranking way higher on the all-time list than you'd expect (28th).

Competition here WAR-wise was obviously not high given what it took to capture the top spot, although this was honestly one of the closest cases yet for sentimentality taking the reins. Original Marlin and 1997 World Series champion Alex Arias wore the number for almost his entire Marlins career, which gives him a strong claim on the heart vote for fans old enough to remember that era. Another contender was 2025 revelation and current holder of the jersey Janson Junk who, in addition to allowing me to type three "j" words in a row, matched Cooper's best WAR season in somewhat limited work last year.

The technical answer/honorable mention award goes to one of the more exciting bench bats in team history, Luis Gonzalez. While his farewell stint with Miami only amounted to a -0.6 WAR effort, his 51.7 WAR and 354 HRs for his career easily make him the best to ever wear it. And 8 of those long balls did come in assistance of the 2008 Marlins.

For Cooper, his home run in Game 2 of the 2020 NL Wild Card Series and first half of the 2022 season that resulted in an All-Star nod stand out as the clear highlights of an appreciated but average career in Miami. Curiously enough, he's arguably most remembered now for how his time with Miami was bookended by two trades involving tantalizing pitchers. In 2018, the Marlins traded a very raw Michael King to the Yankees in order to acquire Cooper (and Caleb Smith). Then in 2023, Miami sent Cooper off to San Diego in exchange for Ryan Weathers.

If nothing else, that's quite the role in the Marlins trade tree.

So thanks to Garrett Cooper, for all the homers and hustle. We'll catch you next time at No. 25, which brings some very painful choices.