I'm fine with playing Cooper at 1B in a platoon with Smith.
What has Cooper done in the last 2.3 seasons to show he deserves to DH over Ref or Wong? He has a .722 OPS since the start on '22. It's .697 since the start of '23. This isn't about a hot of cold hand. He's been bad for over a year or two.
He bats RH'd- like Ref & Wong. He done okay vs LHPs, but not RHPs.
.666 in '23 (345 PAs)
.496 in '24 (68 PAs)
He's played in 21 games since APR 30 (started 16)
Wong has career reverse splits (.759 v .599) and hits RHPs way better than Cooper. This is not about a month or two of hot hitting, like Ref.
v RHP
.734 in '23 (295 PAs)
.794 in '24 (108)
I get how catching is very demanding. I'm not advocating he DH every day he does not catch, but we could let McGuire catch more, so Wong could DH more. McGuire hits lefty and seems to be doing better with the staff than Wong, this year.
Now, to Ref: Ref is a notorious platoon type bat. Asking for him to play more is about "riding the hot bat," and I can understand Cora or anyone else not thinking that is a good philosophy.
Career: .641 v RHPs
.792 in '22 (104 PAs)
.466 in '23 (98)
.964 in '24 (61)
He's only been horrible one year in in the last 2.3 seasons.
He's played in one more game than Cooper since APR 30, but he's started only 13 games compared to Coop's 16. I ask why?
Hot hand? Numbers since April 30th (Coop's first game with the Sox)
All the players that could play, instead of Coop. I'm only saying 2 should have played a few more games than they did...
.827 DHam
.811 Ref
.743 Wong
.649 Romy
.562 Smith
.488 McGuire
.464 Cooper
Season with the Sox v RHPs
.964 Ref
.794 Wong
.768 Yoshida
.752 DHam
.658 Valdez
.592 McGuire
.571 Smith
.422 Dalbec
.299 Cooper (which is even worse than your fave- Grissom at .334)
I'm a huge fan of Cora. I know he understands much more about the game and our players than I do. I make statements about what I'd do or like to see done, more often, but not in a way that is trying to make Cora look badly.