Are there any Oakland Athletics followers studying this? In that case, don’t fear, your workforce is doing its traditional nonsense, there’s nothing to see right here. You’re fortunate they left, don’t really feel so dangerous, these previous couple of years can’t take away all the great instances. You may go forward and skip this one, nice article, hooray. Now that that group is gone, and we’re left with Sacramentonians, new A’s followers, extra common followers of the game, and maybe Vegas residents, let me say this: The A’s signing Brent Rooker to a five-year, $60 million extension is superior, and I adore it.
Rooker was a uncommon brilliant spot on a dismal 2023 A’s squad. Then he was downright glorious on the green-shoots-of-hope 2024 workforce, compiling 5.1 WAR, even with the punishing positional adjustment that comes from DHing, due to a scorching .293/.365/.562 batting line. That line is even higher than you may suppose, coming because it did within the cavernous Coliseum, and it didn’t look fluky.
Rooker hits the stuffing out of the ball. He completed eighth in barrels per batted ball in 2024, simply forward of certifiably monumental guys Oneil Cruz, Kyle Schwarber, and Marcell Ozuna. He additionally elevates the ball extra steadily than any of that crew. The 2 are intertwined, clearly, however any time you’re hitting rockets just like the 2024 variations of Schwarber and Ozuna, you’re doing one thing proper. You may hardly do higher from scratch when you have been making an attempt to give you an excellent energy hitter; a vicious swing (78th-percentile bat velocity) that steadily places the ball in play at worthwhile launch angles (86th-percentile candy spot fee) means loads of barrels (97th percentile) and 39 homers even in a park that suppresses righty energy mightily.
Gamers like this, posting five-win seasons earlier than even hitting arbitration, don’t precisely develop on timber. There have been eight of them final yr, counting Rooker, and also you’ve heard of the opposite seven: Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Jarren Duran, Elly De La Cruz, William Contreras, Cal Raleigh, and Jackson Merrill. Now, none of these guys goes to be accepting five-year, $60 million offers anytime quickly. However Rooker isn’t your common early-career participant.
Rooker went thirty fifth within the 2017 draft, a power-hitting faculty outfielder with gaudy stats within the SEC. He then spent 4 years destroying the ball at each degree he performed. The Twins, who had initially drafted him, couldn’t discover a spot for him on the key league roster, and after they made house in 2021, he struggled to a below-average line regardless of glorious minor league statistics that very same yr. Whether or not it was main league jitters or simply small-sample randomness, he wanted a change of surroundings, and he received bundled off to San Diego when the Padres traded Chris Paddack for Taylor Rogers.
After all, the Padres didn’t have a lot use for him within the majors both; they might hardly discover taking part in time for all of their established stars because it was. Whereas Rooker mashed away within the minors (a .272/.385/.605 slash line in 273 PA), A.J. Preller discovered himself in want of a backup catcher, so he flipped Rooker to the Royals for Cam Gallagher. Although he hit even higher in Triple-A for Kansas Metropolis (.338/.424/.775 in 92 PA), the workforce DFA’ed him attributable to a roster crunch. The A’s gamely swooped in, and truthfully, why wouldn’t they? Rooker’s minor league stats have been shockingly constant from 2017-22, with wRC+ marks of 158, 124, 139, 142, and 154.
That’s how Rooker ended up taking part in his first full huge league season in 2023 at age 28. He was above common immediately, and I imply, duh. His minor league manufacturing hadn’t all the time regarded the prettiest – numerous strikeouts, even on the low ranges – however when you’re raking at Triple-A, the percentages are fairly good that you just’ll at the very least tread water within the bigs. Rooker shed his Quad-A label fairly rapidly, and in truth, I don’t suppose it ever made that a lot sense; his contact high quality has all the time been huge league caliber. He was simply the sufferer of quite a few groups making bother for themselves with roster crunches, after which the Royals – yeah, I’m not precisely positive what occurred there.
In any case, that’s all previously. The longer term is Rooker headlining in Sacramento after which Las Vegas because the clear finest hitter in a sneaky thrilling lineup. I feel that this extension works on two fronts, one for the participant and one for the membership, in a means that the most effective offers do. For Rooker, it is a life-changing amount of cash. Counting every little thing from his signing bonus to the pre-arb bonus swimming pools, Rooker cleared $4.9 million within the first eight years of his skilled profession. That’s not nothing, but it surely’s not what you consider skilled athletes making. It’s extra like a profitable software program engineer, significantly within the Bay Space. This isn’t fairly Brock Purdy taking part in for the league minimal, however Rooker has made spectacularly little given how good of a participant he was in 2024. Sixty million {dollars} adjustments every little thing. Now he’s set for all times even when 2024 finally ends up being the most effective yr of his profession — and it most likely can be! It was a extremely good yr!
From the workforce aspect, this deal does three issues. First, it spends somewhat cash this yr. Rooker was projected to make $5 million in arbitration this season, however the A’s pays him $10 million within the first yr of his deal. The workforce is trying to enhance its price range for varied causes (income sharing covenants, making the workforce extra enjoyable, seeming extra like an precise main league franchise, and so on.), and spending to retain the workforce’s finest gamers looks like a wonderful solution to fulfill that urge.
Second, that is only a whole lot from an anticipated worth standpoint. Giving Rooker $36 million over the primary three years of the deal, what would have been his arbitration years, might be a slight overpay; my back-of-the-envelope arb mannequin places his earnings round $33 million. Two years of free company after that for $24 million, plus an as-yet-undetailed vesting choice for an additional yr, feels about proper. if Paul Goldschmidt and Carlos Santana are getting one-year offers in that vary, it’s onerous to really feel dangerous about Rooker’s odds of getting a much bigger deal ought to he hit free company. This isn’t a house run extension from the workforce’s standpoint, but it surely’s clearly advantageous: paying a borderline All-Star $12 million a yr for the remainder of his prime years is wise baseball.
Lastly, Rooker’s extension ties the workforce’s DNA collectively throughout three disparate eras that can typically make for complicated fandom. He was the most effective participant on the final iteration of the Oakland workforce, and in a means that recollects the Moneyball-era A’s; walks and dingers from massive dudes who’re questionable within the subject. He’s a pleasant ambassador who can be one of many faces of the workforce in Sacramento, and he’s reportedly a terrific clubhouse presence as properly. When (if?) the workforce lastly decamps to Las Vegas, he’ll nonetheless be below contract as a tenured A, somebody the workforce can placed on posters and make bobbleheads of whereas they attempt to construct a brand new fanbase.
That’s good enterprise, and fairly truthfully, the A’s appear to be doing a whole lot of good enterprise this winter. Their new-look pitching employees, headlined by Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs, will assist cushion the shock of transferring from one of many hardest parks within the league for hitters to a extra cheap stadium – I feel that Sacramento will play as a hitter’s park although not an excessive one, although that assumption is as-yet untested. They’re possible wanting into offers for different hitters on the workforce, and so they have extra money to spend this offseason to get to their acknowledged purpose of $100 million in wage. Their lineup is dotted with younger, up-and-coming gamers to play understudy to Rooker: JJ Bleday and Lawrence Butler had sterling 2024 seasons, and prime prospect Jacob Wilson appears to be like set to make his mark in 2025. The newly cheap offensive setting ought to assist ease Wilson’s transition to the majors after his 28-game 2024 debut, an additional plus.
This deal can’t be the one factor the A’s do to work in direction of the longer term, however nothing about this winter provides me that impression. It’s additionally a becoming first step in direction of signing new offensive gamers; Rooker counts as a veteran on this workforce regardless of his comparatively slim service time, and rewarding the veterans with monetary safety earlier than bringing in exterior voices is wise enterprise (and clubhouse administration) from my perspective.
It’s bizarre to be praising the A’s. They’ve gotten a whole lot of scorn from me previously few years, and so they’ve deserved it. They nonetheless do, actually. However that doesn’t change what I take into consideration this deal: I adore it for each participant and workforce, and I’m cautiously optimistic that the A’s are beginning to behave much less like a cartoon villain and extra like an actual main league baseball workforce. On the sector, at the very least.
