Cooper Hummel has been designated for assignment, again.
Colton Cowser is officially back. The Orioles were so excited to have him that they made a roster move on their off day, activating the shoulda-been 2024 Rookie of the Year from the 60-day injured list on Monday evening. On the other end of that transaction, outfielder Cooper Hummel was designated for assignment by the team, again, after logging exactly one plate appearance.
Cowser has been gone for so long that we did not yet know how bad the Orioles season would be when he went on the injured list. There wasn’t any inkling. It was during the fourth game of the year that Cowser made the poor decision to slide head-first into first base and managed to fracture a thumb while doing so. That was on March 30. He’s been out of the picture ever since.
It’s not hard to feel like Cowser’s absence is part of the reason for the struggle. That’s been particularly true since the most frequent left fielder in Cowser’s absence has been Heston Kjerstad. The Orioles top draft pick in 2020 has not been up to the challenge either offensively or defensively, ending up as one of the five worst position players in all of MLB so far this season. It’s a small surprise to me that Kjerstad wasn’t the guy sent out as Cowser was activated. I don’t know what the Orioles are doing here. I’m not sure they know.
Tough luck for Hummel, who is sent packing again. He’s probably glad to have gotten a week’s worth of big league money but probably not glad for the instability. The team was never invested in him as anything other than an absolute last-ditch emergency option that they ended up never needing. This does, at least, answer the question of why we didn’t see a prospect instead of Hummel. It’s because they were going to get rid of him as soon as Cowser returned.
With Cedric Mullins now on the injured list as well, Cowser might end up playing center field for the interim period until Mullins returns. I’d rather see him out there than Jordyn Adams, another jabroni who’s been brought in as an emergency option.
Now that Cowser is back, the Orioles just need him to hit something close to his performance over the 2024 season, because if he comes back and gets swept up in the disappointing batting that’s plagued the team this year, that will add to the gloominess rather than contribute to dispelling it.