A’s reluctant to trade Rooker, Bad news for Rangers, Pirates

Oakland A’s DH Brent Rooker has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball this month, batting .408 with a .478 OBP, 10 homers and 25 RBI. This season, he owns a 167 wRC+, ranking him fifth among all big league bats behind only Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna. He is also seventh in the MLB in home runs with 25 for the year. Rooker is under team control for three more years after that and is about to enter his first year of arbitration.

If the A’s were to move Rooker, it would be fair to ask for a hit. According to Jon Heyman, the A’s aren’t necessarily looking to move Rooker.

Bleday, who is also mentioned here, is in the midst of a breakout campaign as the A’s center fielder and has four more years of team control, including one more pre-arb season.

As I said earlier this week, if the A’s aren’t willing to trade some of these guys, they’re not getting good enough deals. Rooker has been a big part of the team’s offense over the past two years, and ownership is telling people that at some point they’re going to hang on to these types of players. With the team leaving for Sacramento in 2025, now would be a good time to start down that path.

Just because Rooker, Miller and Bleday won’t be traded doesn’t mean the A’s won’t make any moves. One player who could be available is Miguel Andujar. The left fielder is only under team control until 2025, and moving him would open up a spot in the lineup for a few different scenarios.

One would be to give Daz Cameron more playing time to see if they want to keep him around for next year. Another would be to move Max Schuemann back into a utility role and bring in Darell Hernaiz to play shortstop while Jacob WIlson is on IL. They could also bring up Colby Thomas, who played in the minors this season, batting .288 combined with a .354 OBP and 19 homers between Midland and Las Vegas.

The A’s also have relievers TJ McFarland, Scott Alexander and Austin Adams, who could all be available in the coming days. Oakland may not land a big addition at the deadline, but they could surprise quite a few people by keeping this roster largely intact while continuing to build for the future of the organization.