OA have reached an agreement with the designated hitter Brent Rooker on a five-year, $60MM contract extension, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. The deal includes an option to buy out a sixth season that could push the value to $90MM. Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that the base value of the option is $22MM and that Rooker will make $30MM over the first three seasons. That represents what would have been the arbitration age of a Bledsoe Agency client. The deal closes his arb window and buys out at least two free agent seasons.
It’s another important investment in what has been a big season for the A’s. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Rooker becomes the first A’s player to sign a five-year contract since the club extended the starting pitcher. Trevor Cahill for $30.5MM in 2011. It’s the team’s second $60MM+ investment this winter. Last month, they added Luis Severino with a three-year, $67MM free agent deal that represents the largest contract in franchise history.
Rooker getting such a contract would have been unthinkable two years ago. He received the A’s on waivers early in the 2022-23 season. Rooker was a 28-year-old DH/corner who had bounced between the Twins, Padres and Royals without much exposure to either position. As a former top 35 draft pick in the minors, he was a reasonable waiver target. The A’s certainly didn’t think this would work out so well, though.
The hard-throwing Rooker not only had the most successful reliever claim in recent memory but became one of baseball’s best hitters. He hit 30 home runs in 526 plate appearances to earn an All-Star in 2023. Despite missing the Midsummer Classic last season, Rooker took another big step forward. He connected on 39 homers, 26 doubles and a triple with a great .293/.365/.562 batting line in 614 plate appearances.
Rooker finished tied for fifth (and José Ramírez again Marcell Ozuna) on a home run. Only Aaron is the judge, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Santander again Juan Soto hit more. Among hitters with at least 500 PAs, Rooker ranks in the top 20 in all three slash statistics. He finished sixth in the standings – behind Judge, Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr.Soto once Jordan Alvarez.
It’s now been two seasons of borderline elite offensive production. Rooker has a .272/.348/.528 slash in over 1100 plate appearances in an A’s uniform. He is in the top 15 in slugging percentage and ranks ninth in homers since the ’23 campaign. He is a man in the middle of the order.
There is a decent amount of swing and miss in his game. Rooker has played more than 30% of the games for the As. Last year’s production was driven in part by a .362 average on balls in play that will be difficult to maintain. Rooker makes a ton of hard contact, though, so he’s likely in line for a modest BABIP decline rather than a major decline.
The practice of playing football took place at the end of last season. Rooker carried an uncontrollable .390 BABIP into the All-Star Break. That dropped to .333 in the second half. To his credit, Rooker has compensated by reducing his strikeout rate to a manageable 24.1% clip over that span. It remains to be seen whether he’ll maintain that level of communication, but it’s an encouraging development that may reassure the front office’s confidence in his chest.
Even if he doesn’t hit .290 while pushing for 40 home runs every year, Rooker should still be an impact bat. The A’s have made it clear that they see him as the best player on their roster. The team reportedly took him off the market before last summer’s trade deadline. They weren’t interested in letting trade rumors reignite during the offseason. GM David Forst announced less than a week into the season that the A’s had nothing to do with Rooker. They doubled down by committing to him through at least the 2029 season.
Rooker passed three years in the big leagues last season. He was entering his first of three seasons of arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz made $5.1MM in salary next year. While the salary breakdown is unknown, Rooker will reportedly receive $30MM in what would have been his arbitration window. That leaves an average of $15MM per year over two free agent seasons. It’s not a full contract up front, but it looks like Rooker will make more over the next few years than if he went through the arbitration process.
The team made that trade for the chance to keep him at the lower end of the market through the 2028-29 seasons — slated to be their first two years in Las Vegas. The A’s had no guaranteed money after 2027. Severino and recent commercial acquisitions Jeffrey Springs they were the only players signed for next season.
The A’s revenue-sharing situation has been a key issue this offseason. Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported last month that the team may need to push its competitive tax to $105MM to avoid an MLBPA complaint. Teams are required to spend revenue sharing on the product on the platform.
Rooker’s extension will increase their tax number, although not by a large amount. The contract comes with an average annual value of $12MM. AAV is the number used for tax purposes, so it doesn’t matter how the earnings are distributed. Rooker was already expected to make around $5MM next season. This adds about $7MM to the team’s tax number, which will assess about $97MM (as calculated by RosterResource).
More to come.
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