The A’s have officially announced a five-year contract extension with designated hitter Brent Rooker. The deal includes a club/vesting option for 2030. Rooker, a client of The Bledsoe Agency, is reportedly guaranteed $60MM. The option’s base value is $22MM and could push as high as $30MM based on his MVP finishes. Rooker had been under arbitration control for three seasons, so the deal buys out at least two free agent years.
Rooker receives a $10MM signing bonus and a $2MM salary for the upcoming season. He’ll make $6MM in 2026, $12MM in ’27, $13MM in ’28 and $17MM in ’29. The $22MM option would vest if Rooker reaches 500 plate appearances in 2029 or combines for 900 PAs between 2028-29. He’d also unlock the option with two top 10 MVP finishes between 2027-29. Finishing in the top 10 in MVP balloting in any of the next five years could escalate the option value.
It’s another significant investment in what has been a huge offseason by A’s standards. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Rooker becomes the first A’s player to sign a five-year deal since the club extended starting pitcher Trevor Cahill for $30.5MM in 2011. It’s the team’s second investment for $60MM+ this winter. Last month, they added Luis Severino on a three-year, $67MM free agent deal that represented the largest contract in franchise history.
Rooker securing such a contract would have been impossible to envision two years ago. He landed with the A’s on a waiver claim early in the 2022-23 offseason. Rooker was a 28-year-old DH/corner outfielder who had bounced between the Twins, Padres and Royals without getting much of a look at any stop. As a former top 35 overall draft pick who had hit well in the minors, he was a sensible waiver target. The A’s certainly didn’t envision it working out this well, though.
The righty-swinging Rooker has become not only one of the most successful waiver claims in recent memory but one of baseball’s best hitters. He popped 30 home runs in 526 plate appearances to earn an All-Star selection in 2023. While he was snubbed from the Midsummer Classic last season, Rooker took another major step forward. He connected on 39 homers, 26 doubles and a pair of triples with a massive .293/.365/.562 batting line across 614 plate appearances.
Rooker finished tied for fifth (alongside José Ramírez and Marcell Ozuna) in home runs. Only Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Santander and Juan Soto hit more. Among hitters with at least 500 PAs, Rooker ranked in the top 20 in all three slash stats. He finished sixth in slugging — trailing Judge, Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr., Soto, and Yordan Alvarez.
It’s now two seasons of borderline elite offensive production. Rooker has a .272/.348/.528 slash through more than 1100 plate appearances in an A’s uniform. He’s in the top 15 in slugging percentage and ranks ninth in homers since the start of the ’23 campaign. He’s a middle-of-the-order presence.
There is a decent amount of swing-and-miss to his game. Rooker has fanned in more than 30% of his plate appearances with the A’s. Last year’s production was driven in part by a .362 average on balls in play that’ll be difficult to maintain. Rooker makes a ton of hard contact, though, so he’s probably in line for a modest BABIP regression rather than a huge drop-off.
The ball-in-play normalization happened at the end of last season. Rooker carried an unsustainable .390 BABIP into the All-Star Break. That dropped to .333 in the second half. To his credit, Rooker compensated by cutting his strikeout rate to a much more manageable 24.1% clip during that stretch. It remains to be seen whether he’ll maintain that level of contact, but it’s an encouraging development that presumably affirmed the front office’s confidence in his hitting acumen.
Even if he doesn’t hit .290 while pushing 40 home runs on an annual basis, Rooker should remain an impact bat. The A’s have made clear they envisioned him as the long-term anchor of their lineup. The team reportedly took him off the market in advance of last summer’s trade deadline. They had no interest in allowing trade rumors to rekindle during the offseason. GM David Forst declared within a week of the offseason beginning that the A’s weren’t dealing Rooker. They’re doubling down by committing to him through at least the 2029 season.
Rooker surpassed three years of major league service last season. He was entering his first of three arbitration seasons. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $5.1MM salary for next year. Rooker will reportedly receive $30MM over what would have been his arbitration window. That leaves an average of $15MM annually for the two free agent seasons. It’s not quite a front-loaded contract, but it appears Rooker will make a little more in the next couple years than he would have had he gone through the arbitration process.
The team makes that tradeoff for the chance to keep him at below-market rates during the 2028-29 seasons — which are scheduled to be their first two years in Las Vegas. The A’s didn’t have any money guaranteed beyond 2027. Severino and recent trade pickup Jeffrey Springs were their only players signed past next season.
The A’s revenue sharing status has been a significant storyline this offseason. Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported last month that the team could need to push its competitive balance tax payroll to roughly $105MM to avoid an MLBPA grievance. Teams are required to spend revenue sharing money on the on-field product.
Extending Rooker will push their tax number up, though it’s not by a huge amount. The contract comes with a $12MM average annual value. The AAV is the number used for tax purposes, so it wouldn’t matter how the salaries are distributed. Rooker had already been expected to make around $5MM next season. This adds roughly $7MM to the team’s tax number, which will check in around $97MM (as calculated by RosterResource).
The tax number isn’t finalized until the end of the year, so the remainder of the A’s offseason and in-season activity can push that further. Tax considerations are relevant but are far from the only reason for the A’s to make this deal. If they were solely concerned about pushing next season’s CBT number, they could have signed a handful of mid-tier free agents to one-year contracts.
Rooker turned 30 in November. A five-year commitment runs through his age-34 season. There’s some risk in a five-year deal for a player in his 30s who doesn’t provide much defensive value. Yet if Rooker continues hitting at anywhere near this level, his arbitration price tag would have climbed quickly anyhow. He could have put himself in position for an AAV in the $20-25MM range once he hit free agency, a number that the A’s may have been disinclined to match.
At the same time, it’s easy to see the appeal for Rooker of locking in the security. It wasn’t that long ago that he looked like a fringe roster player. He wouldn’t have gotten to free agency until his age-33 season, when a three- or four-year deal might’ve been the ceiling. Sacrificing a little bit of long-term earning upside to avoid injury risk over the next couple seasons is understandable.
This should also solidify Rooker’s spot in what looks to be an up-and-coming A’s lineup. Lawrence Butler, Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom, Shea Langeliers, JJ Bleday and rebound candidate Zack Gelof have promise as an offensive core. Last summer’s fourth overall pick Nick Kurtz could move quickly as a polished college hitter. The A’s still need a lot to break right to contend in 2025, but things are starting to come into focus. Soderstrom and Kurtz fit best at first base, so perhaps there’ll be a logjam down the line with Rooker locked in at designated hitter. That’d be a good problem to have if both young first basemen reach their offensive ceilings and Rooker continues to hit at an All-Star level.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported that the A’s and Rooker were in agreement on a five-year, $60MM deal with a vesting option that could get to $30MM. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the option’s base was $22MM and that Rooker would make $30MM over the first three seasons. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the salary breakdown and the vesting provisions.
Image courtesy of Imagn.
Wow. Seems like a bargain for today’s market.
What a steal
Good move for the A’s. Bought out all of his arbitration years ensuring cost certainty and a pair of free agent years ensuring he’ll be with the team when they move to Vegas
IF they close the deal on Vegas.
You might want to check out all the final approvals from the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, MORE THAN A MONTH AGO. Lease is approved, as are Non-Relocation Agreement, Development Agreement, and Community Benefits Agreement. There are no more documents needing approval from the Stadium Authority. US Bank has committed to supply the loan money that the As were seeking, and Goldman Sachs has audited the Fisher family finances and affirmed that they are well able to keep their commitments. Construction of the new stadium will begin this spring after a few minor construction approvals from the County, which are a foregone conclusion.
Woah. I expected some front-loaded deal to put them over the grievance threshold. If he’s anywhere close to last year this should be tremendous. 3 Arb years that’d probably total $14M, so another 2 for 45. should be ok value. That last year doesn’t seem like a great idea for a 35 year old DH.
He’s already 30 so I can understand his motivation.
MLB-R has him at $5.1M for this season, so his three-year total could be close to $25-30M. On the final year, I figure if he vests, then he’s probably done enough to be worth it.
Nice move by the A’s. Rooker is a stud.
How does Oakland get these guys to sign under market contracts?
Who else did they get to sign under market contracts?
shark stitches: By what measure is it under market for his age and service time?
Also, he’s a DH only.
Blue Baron
shark stitches: By what measure is it under market
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My guess is that the floor on his arb years is $25M, and probably closer to $30M, making his two FA buy-out years $30M/2.
Soto will be getting $51M for his 178 OPS+, so I figure $15M for Rooker’s 165+ is a pretty good bargain.
JoeBrady: Comparing Soto and Rooker is not apples to apples given that they were not both free agents.
Who are you including as “these guys”? Because, as a lifelong A’s fan, we never have someone signed to bargain contracts unless it’s a young player and even then it’s been a long time lol
And when we do go big (by our standards), the deal turns out like Billy Butler and Trevor Rosenthal
He is 30 with only 2 good years good deal for him and his family.
Oak… who??
Great move A’s and nice bag Rook!
Not for nothing Gwynning, but I can generally upvote your comments without looking.
*hat tip and a wink* JB
He must have a lot of love for Sacramento. That does not seem like a lot of money for a guy with 5.6 WAR last season. Then again, he is 30.
He’s 30 and was suppressed via arb.
It’s hard to fault a 30 year old DH for cashing in on 60M. That’s an incredibly high amount of money for a late bloomer.
This is one of my favorite things about BB. In every other sport, you are generally in or you’re out. In BB, you can struggle for 10 years, looking to scrape by at Starbucks in the off-season, then blossom as an RP at age 30 and make millions.
That’s a great deal for the A’s.
I get why they did it, but this will end poorly. This is Chris Davis waiting to happen.
Amazing job, A’s!
(Somewhere Scott Boras just shed a tear.)
Is this like the longest deal the A’s have ever handed out? At least in recent memory?
Matching Eric Chavez’ 5 years I think.
Well done, Oakl…errr, Sacra….errr, Vega….errrr, Yeah, that’s it, Vegas A’s!
Yes, the Sacramento A’s! Woot woot!
Exactly, the Sacramento A’s of Sacramento, California!
Just “the A’s” until they move to Vegas.
I want them to play at least one game a year at Montreal… then they’re the Canadien A’s!
Good to see for A’s fans.
I think A’s can compete in AL West next season. Astros seem worse, Mariners can’t hit, Angels are rebuilding. Only team I would worry about is Rangers because Bochy showed that every other year World Series magic with Giants in 2010-2014.
They likely compete with Texas for third place. It is still the Astros division.
The Astros will be lucky to finish .500.
That’s wishful thinking by you.
No it’s just reality
With the present roster configurations, Mariners, Rangers, Astros and A’s all look like teams that will win between 74 and 86 games next year. If deGrom is healthy all season that could easily be the difference, but a healthy deGrom for a full season seems unlikely.
He’s already 30 and couldn’t be a free agent for another three years. No leverage.
Still a nice paycheck. Just got generational wealth handed to him when he is a guy that as recently as 2022 was a negative WAR for his career and was bouncing from team to team worrying about whether or not his career was over. Good for him.
All he needed was a team to give him regular playing time. A’s do it a lot.
A’s having themselves an interesting offseason..
Indeed. They were also apparently very aggressive on max fried. Seems like their ownership was just trying to get them out of Oakland before he was willing to spend
It’s like the husband going out and buying the sports car when the divorce becomes final.
He is only willing to spend because if he didn’t, he was going to lose his revenue sharing money. He doesn’t have a choice.
It’s almost as if he suppressed the payroll on purpose to tank and turn Oakland fans away even more, in addition to raising ticket prices the same time they held a mini-fire sale. All to help point the finger at Oakland as the problem, taking it off of himself (Fisher) when announcing and proceeding to move the team. .
Announce Robinson Cano to the Mariners as their big free agent acquisition.
Seems like the type of deal that is good for a year or two, but looks pretty bad towards the back end. Hopefully that’s not the case, I like Brent rooker, I never would’ve thought he’d be getting a 90 million dollar extension a couple years ago when he was getting dfad and claimed every other week
Great deal for the A’s imo
The Athletics take a gamble on a 5 year contract with a player who has surpassed his 30th birthday. Anyone want to place a bet on whether the contract will pay off for the Athletics over the 5 year period?
Anyone want to place a bet on whether the contract will pay off
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I’d make that bet. Assuming he was fairly automatic to be retained for his 3 arb years, then this is $30M/2 for the buy-out. With inflation what it is, I’d bet he’d make that easily. Pederson just picked up $37M/2.
It may not be a good deal on the back end but it’s not that expensive. The A’s have to stop trading their best players well before they reach free agency for their fans, young stars (and their agents) to take them seriously.
If he was 23 this wouldn’t have been that great of a deal for him, however at 30 with 3 more arb years ahead of him, this makes perfect sense, gets life changing money and look what Walker got to sign with Houston, the numbers are similar once you remove the arb years & Rooker would have been Walkers age if he didn’t sign this deal so the going rate still applies here & he has security & the A’s move closer to that 105 mil number they have to reach, & have a slugger under team control for a few years.
A+ for A’s. Can’t imagine them getting him cheaper. 2 free agent years for the price of 1. As free agent he might got 3 or 4 years.
Come on Dream. I get it. Everybody wants to see the A’s finally spend some dollars. But this is spending for the sake of spending. Smart money wins baseball games. Ask a simple question: Would the Yankees have made this move? Of course they would have. But would the Rays have made this move? Not in a million years. That says everything.
I think it’s team friendly. I think the Rays or any team would do this. I see why they didn’t trade him now. Either get something great or we extend him. I don’t give a it if A’s spend $ or not. Any team that did this would get a A.
There isn’t much risk. He would have to drastically fall off to not be worth this. Best case he doesn’t and it’s buy 1 free agent year get 1 free.
Just as important as his talent is the pr. Going to a new city. Maybe going to new city again. Nice to say hey we will spend $. Lock up our good players.
Ehhh the Yankees didn’t sign Luke Voit for 5 years… Rays signed Wander Franco for 10 years
Maybe not an A+ signing, but he’s not wrong about the free agent years. If Rooker keeps mashing and baseball contracts keep trending like they do that first free agent year in 2028 will be a steal. Then again the Mets are offering 90 million to Pete Alonso
Are you sure the Mets are still offering that much?
The Rays would have jumped all over this deal.
Yes they would—and trade him as soon as he got to the 10 million a year mark!!!
@Don. The A’s need to establish an identity. Now they have a star player and household name to open up Sacramento and Vegas (especially). The Rays don’t share the same sense of urgency.
Good move for both. So Rooker will be on the scoreboard in the new stadium just like in the rendering.
The irony that the so-called Quadruple-A’s are finally kinda sorta handing out big league sized deals while they play the next 3 seasons in an actual minor league ball park is just chef’s kiss bewildering.
Kinda frustrating that they’re finally operating on a budget that looks and feels like an actual major league club, but they still hand out oddly bloated contracts to players that aren’t really worthy of them. I think back to when one of the biggest deals they ever doled out was 3 years/$21M to Esteban Loaiza- now, granted, pitchers with Loaiza’s numbers at that point in time regularly get like 2 years/$32M or 3 years/$60M nowadays, but back then even $7M a year for a guy like him was obscene.
I just… wish they’d operate like a normal mid market major league club.
Like what a few people have said, their payroll needs to hit a floor to maximize their revenue sharing. They are pretty far from it still so they def need to make some splurges. They will still need to probably spend another $20-30M to hit it.
One-two years and trade. Rooker had a fantastic ’24, but there are a lot factors that’ll need to line up for this run to continue.
Agreed. No way he plays out his contract in an A’s uniform
Good signing. The A’s are now just a few million away from that magical $105 million payroll to keep the revenue sharing checks coming in.
I think more than a few millions … before this, I think they were sitting at like $55M? His salary this year won’t be much since he was still under control.
Before this signing they were at $83 million for CBT payroll. This puts them at $95 million. Just a few million away
He’s almost 30. Kudos for him to getting a real contract. And by MLB standards, it’s a bargain.
If he mashes, he’s underpaid. If and when he declines, he’s not breaking the bank.
And he and his family are set for life now. Good all around.
Unless when they get to Vegas, he goes “Put it all on black!”
A’s have done more than the O’s this off season. It’s like the Bizarro world MLB.
When have the Orioles ever spent much?
O’s have spent more money than the A’s on salaries next year during this offseason.
Fisher found that wallet in El Segundo, apparently.
Good move, A’s.
Good for him! Who would imagined this after watching how putrid he was the first month or so of last season. Good for him for persevering and kudos to the A’s for their stickwithitotude.
Wow! great deal… I guess he’s happy in Oakland… I mean Vegas… I mean Sacramento
Those poor fans in Oakland. Suffering through years of neglect. Then once the team leaves management immediately opens the checkbook.
That’s what I was about to say. Just another slap in the face. I’m sure most of them are still A’s fans (maybe I’m wrong on that) but a good chunk of fans feel this team abandoned them and want no part of it anymore
They’re spending just enough to get their full revenue sharing payout, nothing more.
The “poor fans”? Oakland was plenty successful for most of this century. Even as recently as 2018/19, they won 97 games, and managed to draw a whopping 1.6M fans. That was good for #26 & #23 in attendance.
They didn’t spend with the intention of getting out of Oakland. It was the sole reason for not spending.
You used the word “investment” twice, but we should be clear that what Oakland-LV-Sacramento is doing is “investing” revenue sharing money in order to keep it. It’s not like ownership is plunging in with their own cash. Kind of a tough thing to swallow for the folks (previously) back home. Philly A’s, KC A’s. Oakland A’s, now Taxpayer+Revenue Sharing A’s. I know, it’s just business, but if they had these plans they should have shared it. They didn’t spend in Oakland because they didn’t get free goods.
Ok… so this has been kinda brought up. This year will they be called “Sacramento Athletics” or for some reason will they start using the Las Vegas moniker?
No city, just the A’s.
My guess at the breakdown:
2025: $5M
2026: $8M
2027: $12M
2028: $16M
2029: $19M
2030: $22M option
I missed the “$30M over the first 3 years” part. Definitely somewhat front-loaded given his predicted $5.1M arb salary, probably to help them get to $105M this year.
2025: $8M
2026: $10M
2027: $12M
2028: $14M
2029: $16M
2030: $22M option
Rooker played the smart move, this contract gives him both job security and a nice bag of money, especially for a guy that’s already 30.
Rooker will also be playing home games at Sutter Health Field rather than the Oakland Coliseum. The Coliseum favors RH pull hitters (think Frank Thomas). Who knows how that AAA park is going to play?
That minor league stadium will play in a way that gives someone like Jacob Wilson a legitimate shot at a batting title. Oakland Coliseum had too much foul territory for any A’s player to win one.
So… I guess the moral of the story is if you downgrade your stadium you’ll have money to spend on your team?
No the moral of the story is the A’s had to spend money to avoid a grievance from the union, if that threat wasn’t on the table they wouldn’t be spending money like this.
Basically they are forced to, if they want revenue sharing and to avoid that grievance filed.
Well if they can do that in a minor league park and smaller market then the grievance must be legitimate.
So are you implying that MLB team owners aren’t actually cash flow negative except for a handful of them? Some of them *could* spend more out of their revenue-sharing checks as opposed to pocketing it entirely?
Good for Mr. Rooker and it’s not too greedy like some players.
Sleeping Tigers
Should have hired the Superfife!
I am beginning to think Chris Illich is just not a Good Guy or a very nice person……
Who else guesses what the dollar amount is before seeing what’s reported; like guessing the line on a game before seeing the actual line? I only missed this one by $30million in real value and $15million in what the A’s would have offered. In other words, this is a bargain.
Good for Rooker. That’s life changing money.
Feels like a win win signing. Works well for what both parties are looking to achieve. Glad it worked out for them and hope Rooker continues his success.
Fuc k ig no pirates trade.
very cheap, great deal for las vegas
Good for Rooker! Class guy. He stood in KC during BP when no one was really there in that awful 2023 season…and fed balls to my 10 year old by the dugout. Came and sought him out. He got a kick out of seeing my son try to handle them all. I think he left with 10 balls.
I’m sure they want to avoid any punishment from the league, but man, the haul they could have gotten for Rooker & Miller!
The As remind me of a company that has a budget surplus and is just trying to spend it on anything as time is running out
That sounds like the street I used to live on. It gets ripped up every two years for no good reason and re-paved at a snail’s pace. Use it or lose it.
WOW ! Great signing he has real size and power. Last seasons dead ball really shown who has it, and who don’t. Moving out and up !