By Rob Rains
MEMPHIS – Cooper Hjerpe was the first-round draft pick of the Cardinals in 2022 and threw his first pitch as a professional in April 2023. More than three years later, there are many reasons why Hjerpe believes he really is just now getting started in his career.
The primary reason is that a series of elbow injuries limited Hjerpe to a combined 93 innings in his first two professional seasons before Tommy John surgery kept him from pitching at all in 2025.
All that time of not being able to pitch has left Hjerpe motivated as his comeback trail has brought him to Memphis, believing he has something to prove not only to the Cardinals but to himself.
“When a team takes someone in the first round it’s an investment for the ballclub and I haven’t lived up to those expectations, but I know I can,” said Hjerpe, now 25. “It’s hard going through all the rehab because you want to help the club and you can’t.”
After being medically cleared to pitch, the lefthanded Hjerpe made his first start for Double A Springfield on July 5, two years and three days since his last start for that club before he was shut down because of his injury.
The doctors thought rest and therapy might cure the issue, which Hjerpe first thought was a flexor tendon problem. He was able to get back on the mound in the prospect breakout game in spring training in 2025 – but he quickly learned his elbow was still hurt.
“The second inning felt a little off but nothing crazy,” Hjerpe said. “Sometimes when a guy blows out you know. I really didn’t have a clue.”
All Hjerpe really knows is that it’s been a long road back to the mound – and finally getting to the point where he is able to pitch without being in pain.
“The hardest part was not playing,” Hjerpe said. “Seeing your buddies playing and not being able to join them was hard. It was hard mentally, knowing you are not going to be able to compete for the next year and a half.
“My wife, Nicole, keeps me sane especially in those moments where I could be negative about the situation and be like ‘woe is me.’ She kind of helped me accept the situation.
“This is God’s plan for me. He works in mysterious ways. For me, I think (it was) testing my patience and understanding that my time will come and that every path is different – control what you can control and what you can’t control.”
For Hjerpe, a kid from northern California, that path really began during his years at Oregon State.
“Going to put everything he has into everything he does”
It was what Oregon State coach Mitch Canham saw from Hjerpe during his years in Corvallis, even as a freshman, that makes him confident Hjerpe is still on a path to pitch, and pitch well, in the major leagues.
“When he came into Oregon State as a freshman his fastball was really his only pitch and he wanted the baseball every opportunity he could,” Canham said. “Cooper is going to put everything he has into everything that he does. I don’t know that any of us are surprised at all that he is in Triple A dominating and is back healthy. He’s extremely driven and competitive but I think it’s even stepped up a notch. He’s got that ‘man on a mission’ look going. It makes for an even better story for him.
“When you go through hard times, and we talk about that with all of the guys who come through our program, that the hardship can be a blessing. Maybe this extends his career even further. Maybe this allows him to connect with his teammates even better and help someone else who is going through it. This might be something that helps him become even a better leader and take his team to a championship.”
It’s been four years since Hjerpe pitched his final game for Oregon State, but it’s one of two distinct memories that Canham has about Hjerpe that he will never forget.
On his way to becoming the national pitcher of the year in 2022, striking out 161 of the 407 batters he faced that season, Hjerpe came out of the bullpen in an NCAA tournament game for what turned out to be his final home game.
“It still gives me chills,” Canham said. “You can’t really see the bullpen down the line to see who is coming in. When he emerged, everyone erupted. He got to the mound and tipped his cap to everyone. It was a special moment. He gave his heart and soul to that place.”
The other story Canham shared was only in front of his team, during a practice, but Canham believes it also says a lot about Hjerpe.
During drills one day at practice, Hjerpe was on the mound. Canham was in the batter’s box. The pitcher was instructed to make a pitch and after it went by the batter, Canham, would either bunt or hit the ball on the ground.
“Cooper didn’t care who was in the box,” Canham said. “He threw about a 70 percent heater. I usually let it go by and roll a bunt or swing the fungo but I didn’t let the pitch go by. I swung and ripped a double down the right field line. He was looking at me like, ‘What are you doing?’ and I said, ‘Hey man, don’t bring that weak stuff in here.’
“The next time through he ripped a nasty slider and made me buckle. It was coming at my neck and landed right down the middle. He kind of laughed it off, but he wasn’t going to give in just because the head coach was in the box.”
Canham believes, and knows, Hjerpe’s attitude is the same today as it was that day. He isn’t giving in, no matter the obstacles that have been placed in front of him.
“Having intent and conviction behind what you are throwing is going to exponentially make your stuff better,” Canham said. “His belief is behind every pitch that he throws. Guys that are timid affect the energy of the hitter. Cooper is going to come at you. There is no fear in him.
“I used to kind of always hope that someone on the other team would piss him off because when he gets mad he will start ripping out a harder fastball. You watch him take the mound or walk off the mound. There’s never a time when he has any doubt in his mind.”
“We’ve got to draft this guy”
That was the type of pitcher Chris Rodriguez saw when he watched Hjerpe in college as well. Rodriguez is an area scout for the Cardinals based in southern California, but also had the northwest part of the country in his territory when Hjerpe was at Oregon State.
“He’s always had that mentality,” Rodriguez said. “He’s always been the kind of player that I think people doubted a little bit.”
Part of the reason for some of those doubts might be that Hjerpe is not a prototype lefthanded starter. He doesn’t throw 100 miles an hour and he throws from a lower arm slot.
“He was always just impossible to hit from what I saw,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a much different angle than anybody else I can remember scouting.”
Rodriguez still remembers one game Hjerpe pitched in college – and he wasn’t even there. Hjerpe struck out 17 batters in eight innings in a start against Stanford.
“One of our other scouts, Jamal Strong was at the game and he called me literally five minutes after the game ended,” Rodriguez said. “He said, ‘We’ve got to draft this guy. He was unbelievable.’”
The Cardinals got the chance to follow through on Strong’s request and selected Hjerpe with the 22nd overall pick in that 2022 draft.
“We had so many good looks at him,” Rodriguez said. “It was a good representation of collaboration of the analytics department and scouting.”
The night Hjerpe was drafted, Randy Flores, the Cardinals’ assistant general manager in charge of the draft, said, “He has the will and the grit that you look for when you are watching someone compete on the field. He performed to the eye test and he performed to the metrics.”
Hjerpe was thought of at the time as a pitcher who could move quickly through the farm system on his way to the major leagues.
That plan hit some speedbumps as arthroscopic surgery forced Hjerpe to miss much of the 2023 season before his 2024 season ended in July. Then came the Tommy John surgery.
Even with the injuries and all of the lost time, the Cardinals thought enough of Hjerpe to add him to the 40-man roster last winter. He was on a flight home from his honeymoon when he got the news.
If Hjerpe needed any extra motivation in his recovery, that gave it to him.
“It shows the level of respect they have for you,” Hjerpe said. “When you get added to the 40-man you know they want you to help the ballclub at some point.”
That opportunity could come sooner rather than later, once Hjerpe gets a little farther along in his recovery.
“Everyone looks at results,” he said. “There are a lot of talented guys in the league throwing 100, but I think I can be up there. I think the Cardinals have a lot of guys who go under the radar a lot.
“Competing at a high level is what I dreamed of as a kid. I’ve grown fond of the process, and understanding what it takes to put in the work and get to where you want to be. Getting back to Springfield, to where I was before the surgery, was a big confidence boost for me.”
Hjerpe said his unique pitching motion developed naturally as he was growing up. Even in Little League people thought his delivery was “funky.”
“No one ever told me to throw that way,” he said. “It would be pretty hard to tell someone to throw that way. I think I’m even a little lower now than I was in college, but it’s kind of how my body has grown into it. It just came to be.”
Memphis manager Ben Johnson likes what he has seen so far from Hjerpe – “a lot of very uncomfortable swings.”
“A lot of checked swings,” Johnson said, “guys who look really in-between. That signifies to me someone who is very deceptive. Hitters have a hard time picking up the ball.”
Johnson also sees something Canham saw, which Rodriguez and the other Cardinals’ scouts saw as well.
“He’s not afraid of the moment,” Johnson said. “He appreciates the moment.”
Hjerpe has made four starts for Memphis, working a combined 15 innings. He has struck out 21 of the 61 batters he has faced. He has only allowed seven hits and one run. The only number that Hjerpe doesn’t like is his walk total – 14, but he knows his command will come back once he gets additional work. His last year in college Hjerpe only walked 23 batters in 103 innings.
“That’s like the least of my worries right now,” Hjerpe said. “I’m putting up zeros. I’m healthy. That’s all that matters right now.”
Every time Hjerpe takes the mound now, including in his next start on Friday night at Charlotte, he is trying to make up for all of that time lost. All of the milestones he set during the long rehab process, the checkmarks he made along the way of his goals to lift weights regularly, to play catch for the first time, to throw off a mound for the first time, the first time facing hitters – are disappearing farther and farther into the distance.
“As of right now, competing and throwing up zeros is a priority,” Hjerpe said. “Making sure I am recovering well is a big part of it too. It’s been all positive stuff so far.
“It’s good to be back doing what I love to do.”
Follow Rob Rains on X @RobRains
Photos courtesy of the Memphis Redbirds and Oregon State athletics
