Was it the Brent Rooker Trade After All?

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Minnesota Twins made waves last year when they shipped out their closer on the doorstep of Opening Day. Things haven’t gone well for many of the parties involved in that swap, but Brent Rooker is making himself known.

 

Image courtesy of Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Twins made waves last year when they shipped out their closer on the doorstep of Opening Day. Things haven’t gone well for many of the parties involved in that swap, but Brent Rooker is making himself known.

 

Just before Opening Day last season Derek Falvey and Thad Levine decided to part ways with Taylor Rogers. The timing may have been odd, but he was an aging-and-injured-closer coming off of a down year and heading into free agency. It was an opportunity to grab a controllable starter, even with injury history, in Chris Paddack while seeing Emilio Pagan as a throw in. Oh, and Brent Rooker went to San Diego in the deal as well.

Fast forward to today, and things have changed. Rogers is pitching with his twin Tyler Rogers for the San Francisco Giants. Pagan is a nightly tightrope act for the Twins, and has been the bane of the fanbase since he arrived. Paddack looked promising before undergoing Tommy John surgery again, and while he’ll eventually be back, Minnesota is playing the long game having extended him.

For Rooker, who is no longer with the Padres, he’s getting a chance to shine on an Oakland Athletics team needing any pick-me-up they can get.

Debuting for Minnesota in 2020 (after being a first round pick in 2017), the upside with Rooker was always his bat. He could hit for immense power, and was a superstar in college at Mississippi State. He doesn’t have a true defensive home, and that limits him, but if the swing-and-miss could be limited, he would have a pathway to regular playing time.

It was just a quick seven-game glimpse during the Covid-shortened 2020, but his 162 OPS+ was eye-popping to say the least. Injury then got him in 2021 and Rooker played just 58 games for Minnesota. Jettisoned by San Diego shortly after arriving, Rooker finished the 2022 season back in the American League with the Kansas City Royals.

Then came an opportunity to take over Oakland.

Across 22 games to start 2023 for the Athletics, Rooker has been the highlight of an otherwise awful team. Now set to move out of the Coliseum, nothing Oakland has provided their fans this season has been positive. Trying to do his best while signed for a paltry $725k (due to just 1.059 years of MLB service), Rooker is giving everyone more bang for their buck.

Rooker owns a .353/.465/.779 slash line thus far that’s buoyed by nine dingers. He has always had massive power potential but the 16/14 K/BB is arguably the greatest development of his breakout season. Having already accumulated 1.4 fWAR this season, Rooker has removed the negative tally attributed to his career thus far and is on a blistering pace.

For a guy who has always made loud contact, it’s truly in the quality of his hard-hit rate that things have been impressive. While he is about 7% lower than his hard-hit rate last year, his barrel rate is a staggering 24.1%, up nearly 10% over his career average. He creates soft contact only 11.1% of the time and has broken out by having purpose each time the ball meets the bat.

Not surprisingly, from a plate discipline standpoint, Rooker has also made substantial strides. He is taking more walks because of a career low 28.3% chase rate. Although the whiff rate is still in line with career averages, he has expanded the plate much less often this year. For a player with his profile, there will always be swing and miss, but offering on pitches you can do something with is of the utmost importance.

It truly has been a joy to watch the former Twins slugger break out for the Athletics, and his opportunity should continue to remain present all year. It remains to be seen what Paddack can give Minnesota, but for now, that deal has to be dubbed the Brent Rooker trade.

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[big dog]

Very happy for him. I hope his fun ride lasts for a while.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

It's hard to deny that from just about any point of view, this trade became a mess for all parties involved.  Rogers and Rooker have moved on to different teams due to ineffectiveness.  Pagan is . . . well. . . Pagan but we are still holding onto him.  Paddack MIGHT wind up being a good pickup assuming that things go well with the TJ rehab.  The only one of the group making a substantial contribution right now is Brent Rooker, so at the moment you are certainly correct. 

I kept hoping that he would be a Twins slugger for a long time, but it just never seemed to work out.  Sometimes it takes a few extra tries to make things happen and in this case it took stints with the Twins, Padres, Royals, and now Athletics for Rooker to find himself.  I'm not really optimistic that he has suddenly transformed into Big Papi, but I'm excited for him now and hope that he continues to find success.  I also hope that next year Paddack is pitching well in the rotation and makes us all very glad that the trade happened!

[Mortimerkenny21]

Good for him! Hope he can continue his success for some time to come. Get that big league money while he can.

[jmlease1]

Great for him if this for real...not sure that it is. Let's see where he is in another month or two and no one bothers throwing him a fastball for a while. But maybe he can ride this for a while. Still feels like a AAAA player to me?

[tony&rodney]

Wake me up when Rooker wins the triple crown. 

[smartfred]

It's cool to see the comments on this article are all positive comments wishing him well.

It seems like Twins fans like to blame the front office in times like these.

[Rosterman]

Rooker just ran out of options with the Twins. Like sluggers before him from Restovich to Sorrento to McCarty, he just couldn't put it together to place himself into future plans. (Here's hoping Matt Wallner doesn't fall into a similar cycle).

Amazing how the bodies from that trade quickly dispersed. And Twins fans would be more than happy to see Pagan move on, although the front office, no doubt, holds onto a hope that they could at least flip him for some low-level prospect.

Hopefully Paddack will come back and shine for a couple of seasons in the rotation.

One thing is certain, Oakland will figure out a way to move him!

[TwinsDr2021]

Good Luck to Rooker, but can we hold off a bit, talk about SSS he has 75 at bats this year so far. and he has K'd 8 times in his last 13 at bats.

[Larry Janisewski]

I really enjoyed watching Rooker play at Chattanooga with the Twins AA team a few years back. Glad he has gotten an extended opportunity with the A's and continues to play well.

[2wins87]

I think there is some strong evidence that Rooker has turned a corner.  He could go on to have a good career with the A's, or some other team.  I hope he does find some sustained success after struggling on the cusp for several years.

But of course the A's were never involved in a trade for Rooker, so no, it'll never be the "Rooker trade".  The Padres never got any production from Rooker in the trade.  If it's remembered at all, it'll probably be the seemingly big trade that was actually a nothing trade.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

On 5/3/2023 at 9:45 PM, smartfred said:

It's cool to see the comments on this article are all positive comments wishing him well.

It seems like Twins fans like to blame the front office in times like these.

There's really no blame here.  When Rooker was a Twin (and a Padre, and a Royal) he couldn't put it together to be successful.  That wasn't anyone's fault per se.   He may or may not have done so now (SSS).  He's not going to win the triple crown, but he certainly has the power to hit 30 home runs.  Since he was once a Twin, I wish him the best and will root for him against the rest of the league! 

[singlesoverwalks]

I like Rooker and I'm glad he's putting something together here. I don't blame the Twins for trading him - they have a lot of Rooker-like players. On the other hand, trading Rogers was very galaxy brain of them.