The Padres have traded outfielder Brent Rooker to the Royals for catcher Cam Gallagher, according to Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Rooker, 27, is an outfielder who has hit well at every level he’s played, with the notable exception of the big leagues. Drafted by the Twins in 2017, he made it to the bigs in 2020 and got into 65 games as a Twin before heading to the Padres in the deal Chris Paddack–Taylor Rogers trade.
After getting into two games as a Padre this year, he now has 67 MLB games on his ledger, with a tepid .205/.290/.400 line. That production is about 10% below league average, as evidenced by his wRC+ of 90. But he’s always done better at other levels, including this year. In 61 Triple-A games, he’s hit 19 home runs and slashed .272/.385/.605 for a wRC+ of 137.
Despite his lack of success at the big league level, the Royals are clearly willing to be on that minor league track record. Rooker still has options and will finish this season between one and two years of MLB service time, meaning the Royals have time to figure out how to maximize his talents. With Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi having been traded in recent days, Rooker will help shore up some of the outfield depth that has been subtracted.
As for Gallagher, 29, he was a second round pick of the Royals back in 2011 and has been with them since. He made his MLB debut in 2017 and has largely served as backup to Salvador Perez in that time. However, with this year’s promotion of MJ Melendez, it seems he was nudged out of the plans for KC. In 171 career games, he has a slash line of .240/.302/.355, wRC+ of 77. Due to his strong defensive work, he’s produced 1.5 wins above replacement in that time, according to FanGraphs. For the Padres, he figures to serve as depth behind Jorge Alfaro and Austin Nola, with prospect Luis Campusano around as well.
Ok
Preller still workin’ it. What a day.
Peeler just needed to make one more deal. #Addict
This is the news we were all waiting for
Bam!!!!
No, “Cam”… 🙂
What the heck for?
Rooker is clawing his way back to the ALC so he can get his revenge on the Twins. There’s a Steven King novel in here somewhere.
Yeah I have no idea why SD needs a 5th catcher on the 40 man. They already have Campusano and Sullivan in AAA.
They didn’t think much of Rooker, never really gave him a shot so maybe just grabbing some organizational depth for him. Really odd
Rooker back in the AL Central. He’ll probably get a chance to the rest of this year.
Huge
Kinda scratching my head on this one, from a Padres standpoint. He was expendable for the Royals., what with MJ Melendez’ taking his spot. Cam has never been able to hit much…but then, that’s nothing new with a great many catchers. He CAN play defense pretty well, He’ll make a late inning replacement/rare start backup at best, assuming he even gets recalled to the majors.
AAAA OF for emergency catcher that’s pretty much it.
Padres have a lot of OF depth with Soto Profar Drury Myers Mazara Grisham.
This was a in case Nola and/or Alfaro gets hurt. They don’t really have a lot of options behind Nola Alfaro Campusano.
Seems like a JUST IN CASE type trade.
Why? Don’t really care about losing Cam and I understand he doesn’t have much trade value, but we don’t need a 27 y/o AAAA outfielder. Would rather get an 18 y/o pitcher no one has ever heard of who throws 102 but with 8 bb/9!
I agree in reverse. Trading Rooker doesn’t bother me, and after today, he wouldn’t come any closer than Vegas, but someone with potential would have made sense. Ah, well, a pretty f-ing good week for the Friars!
Royals trading all their antivaxxers, lol
Is MLB Trade Rumors still aggressively monitoring comments?
Not a bad lottery ticket for KC. Dude raked in the minors, maybe they can catch lightning in a bottle.
If there was any record of a pro athlete having a serious reaction to the vaccination, above and beyond the expected reactions, it has not been discussed in any sports source that I am aware of. If you have evidence to the contrary, please share.
But trying to equate a communicable disease with pregnancy is a pretty desperate attempt at justification.
I wish Cam all the success in the world. He’s been a consistent contributor to the team, never with significant numbers but with good defense and good pitcher handling. I hope he does well in San Diego. I look forward to seeing the new OF and what he brings to the table.
Come on Brent! Turn on that power stroke! Good luck!
Rooker has hit well in the minors but nothing in the Majors. Royals are good at developing hitters (but horrible at developing pitchers) so he might be a good pickup.