The A’s have reached an agreement with the designated hitter Brent Rooker He signed a five-year, $60MM contract extension, according to Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. The deal includes a vesting option for Season 6, which could push the value to $90MM. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the option has a base value of $22, and Rooker will earn $30 over the first three seasons of the deal. Rooker is a client of Bledsoe Agency.
By A’s standards, this is another big investment in this huge offseason. As MLBTR’s contract tracker shows, Rooker becomes the first A’s player to sign a five-year deal since the club extended its starting pitching Trevor Cahill The price in 2011 is $30.50. Last month, they added Luis Severino A three-year, $670,000 free-agent contract, the largest in franchise history.
Rucker getting a contract like this would have been unimaginable two years ago. He joined the Athletics on waivers early in the 2022-23 offseason. Rucker is a 28-year-old DH/corner outfielder who has bounced back and forth between the Twins, Padres and Royals without getting much attention in any of his stops. A former 35th overall pick who performed well in the minor leagues, he’s a smart pass-up target. However, Team A certainly didn’t expect things to turn out so well.
The righty-swinging Rooker became not only one of the most successful waiver claims in recent years, but one of the best hitters in baseball. He hit 30 home runs in 526 games and was named a 2023 All-Star. Although he was snubbed in the Midsummer Classic last season, Rooker took another big step forward. He hit 39 home runs, 26 doubles and a pair of triples in 614 games, batting .293/.365/.562.
Rooker ended up tied for fifth (with Jose Ramirez and Marcel Ozuna) at the home run. only Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Santander and Juan Soto Hit more. Among hitters with at least 500 PA, Rooker ranks in the top 20 in all three slash statistics. He finished sixth in the slugging competition – behind Judge Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr.Soto and Jordan Alvarez.
It’s now two seasons of borderline elite offensive production. Rucker appeared in over 1,100 games in an A’s uniform, slashing .272/.348/.528. Since the start of the ’23 season, he ranks in the top 15 in slugging percentage and ninth in home runs. He is a mid-level being.
There are quite a few swings and misses in his game. Rooker fanned in more than 30 percent of his plate appearances with the Athletics. Last year’s production was due in part to a .362 ball-in-game average, which was difficult to maintain. Rooker made a lot of hard contact, though, so he’ll likely see a modest return in BABIP rather than a massive drop off.
At the end of last season, a normalization of the ball in the game happened. Rooker entered the All-Star break with an unsustainable .390 BABIP. It dropped to .333 in the second half. To his credit, Rooker has compensated by lowering his strikeout rate to a more manageable 24.1% during this stretch. Whether he’ll maintain that level of contact remains to be seen, but it’s an encouraging development and presumably affirms the management’s confidence in his hitting acumen.
Even if Rucker doesn’t hit .290 while hitting 40 home runs a year, he should still be a impact bat. The Athletics have made it clear they want him to be a long-term fixture on their roster. The team reportedly took him off the market before last summer’s trade deadline. They don’t want to rekindle trade rumors this offseason. General manager David Foster announced within a week of the start of the offseason that the Athletics would not trade Rooker. They doubled down and committed to him through at least the 2029 season.
There will be more to come.
