{"id":68986,"date":"2024-03-23T14:30:56","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T18:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=68986"},"modified":"2024-03-23T14:30:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T18:30:56","slug":"all-star-cubs-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/23\/all-star-cubs-opening-day\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 All-Star Makes Cubs Opening Day Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another spot on the Cubs Opening Day roster has been filled. It was announced Friday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=coopega03,cooper007gar&amp;search=Garrett+Cooper&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Garrett Cooper<\/a> made the team following a season in which he split time in Miami and San Diego. Cooper inked a Minor League deal with the club at the end of February after not getting a solid market in free agency. Fellow veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithdo02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dominic Smith<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/22\/dominic-smith-opt-out-cubs\/\" target=\"_self\">opted out of his c<\/a>ontract with Chicago early on Friday. This strongly indicated that a place on manager Craig Counsell\u2019s bench belonged to the Torrance, CA native.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Garrett Cooper Reportedly Will Make the Cubs&#8217; Opening Day Roster<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lhnPdM5xKF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/lhnPdM5xKF<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tR5FsvNSFF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/tR5FsvNSFF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherNation\/status\/1771343264911659077?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>Cooper\u2019s Role\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With a crowded infield, Cooper won\u2019t be an everyday guy when the season begins on Thursday. However, he\u2019ll offer a right-handed hitting option at first base that the team otherwise would not have. The organization first attempted a platoon of Trey Mancini and Eric Hosmer last year, which did not go well. It isn\u2019t guaranteed that Cooper will platoon with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/buschmi02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Busch<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bellico01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cody Bellinger<\/a>, but his ability to crush lefties will earn him at-bats on occasion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cooper can get on base at a high rate against southpaws. Power isn\u2019t foreign to the 33-year-old, either. He followed up his All-Star season with 17 homers in 2023. His OPS+ was also just above the league average at 102.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cooper has a pair of homers to his name in 10 games and 26 at-bats in Spring Training this year this year. He has an OPS of .833, slugging .500 and getting on base at a .333 clip. His .231 batting average isn\u2019t super promising, but the Cubs don\u2019t need Cooper to be perfect all the time, and that shows in their decision to put him on the opening-day roster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A no-doubter from Garrett Cooper makes it a 3-0 ballgame at Sloan Park! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BUXf3L5HVn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/BUXf3L5HVn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cubs\/status\/1766198549274857715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>How Does He Stick?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Garrett Cooper is making a case for a roster spot with this oppo taco<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0PEn5yT4JA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/0PEn5yT4JA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CHGO Cubs (@CHGO_Cubs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CHGO_Cubs\/status\/1766198782373331310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wisdopa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Wisdom<\/a> starting the year on the IL, Cooper needs to do everything in his power to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/29\/garrett-cooper-impact-cubs-roster\/\" target=\"_self\">impact the club<\/a>. With the depth of his position on the roster, getting these chances will be tough. If he can be proficient in what the organization already knows he can be, there should be no issue 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another spot on the Cubs Opening Day roster has been filled. It was announced Friday that Garrett Cooper made the team following a season in which he split time in Miami and San Diego. Cooper inked a Minor League deal with the club at the end of February after not getting a solid market in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5007,"featured_media":68991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[68,69,645],"class_list":["post-68986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-nl-central"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}