A’s designated hitter Brent Rooker will undergo surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. He’ll miss the remainder of the season.
It concludes a frustrating year for the two-time All-Star. Rooker was an ironman last season, appearing in all 162 games — all but one as a starter. He rarely seemed completely healthy this season and will wind up playing in just 42 contests. Rooker went down in mid-April with a right oblique strain. He came back fairly quickly but didn’t play at his usual level. The knee him sent back to the injured list a month ago, with the team initially calling it a bone contusion.
Rooker’s bat speed was intact, but his swing and miss rate climbed significantly. He had a particularly tough time adjusting to any kind of offspeed stuff and did almost all his damage against fastballs. Whether because of the injuries or a timing issue, he was far below his capabilities. Rooker batted .200/.281/.389 with 10 home runs across 203 plate appearances. He’d been a well above-average offensive player in the prior three seasons, one of only eight hitters to hit at least 30 homers every year from 2023-25.
The A’s have used backup catcher Jonah Heim as their main designated hitter since the injury. That’s also an avenue for Shea Langeliers to stay in the lineup while getting a day off defensively with Heim behind the dish. They’re also down Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof at the moment — losing all three in quick succession last week. That places a lot of emphasis on Langeliers and Nick Kurtz, each of whom has gone cold over the past couple weeks.
There’s little doubt those two sluggers will pick things back up. It’ll need to happen quickly to stop a slide in the standings. The A’s have dropped four straight and eight of their last 10, falling a season-worst six games under .500. They’re still just 3.5 games back in a wide open AL West but are at 40-46 with the second-worst run differential in the American League.
Rooker is signed through 2029 with a club/vesting option for the ’30 season. He’ll respectively earn $12MM, $13MM and $17MM over the final three years of the $60MM extension he signed two winters ago. The team hasn’t provided many specifics on the operation, but there’s no indication it’ll impact his availability for the start of next season.
