The Athletics have placed designated hitter/outfielder Brent Rooker on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 9) with a bone bruise in his left knee, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. The team reinstated shortstop Jacob Wilson from the IL to take Rooker’s roster spot.
The injury continues a rough start for Rooker, who is already up to two IL placements after playing all 162 of the A’s games in 2025. Rooker missed about three weeks with an oblique strain in April. When healthy, the 31-year-old has slashed a disappointing .200/.281/.389 (82 wRC+) with 10 home runs in 203 plate appearances. Rooker’s 32 percent strikeout rate is up nearly 10 points from last year’s mark, while his .312 xwOBA is not significantly better than an underwhelming .295 wOBA.
Rooker’s struggles have come as a surprise, as the former waiver claim entered 2026 off three straight 30-homer campaigns. The Athletics gave the former waiver pickup from the Royals a five-year, $60MM extension in January 2025, at which point he was coming off a career season. Rooker walked to the plate 614 times in 2024 and slashed .293/.365/.562 with 39 homers and the majors’ sixth-best wRC+ (164). While his numbers took sizable steps backward last year, he still batted .262/.335/.479 (122 wRC+) with 30 homers in 699 trips to the plate.
More to come…
Fancy IL machinations. Not sure who it helps.
After years of being a AAAA player Rooker had a career year in 2024, signed a big deal, and then turned into the Rooker of old.
Smartest decision he made was taking that extension.
The Rooker and Butler extensions confuse me. I mean, neither is that expensive, and any contract can go south, but they had both players under control for years. Rooker was 30 with three years of arb left when they extended him. Sometimes the best move is to let players hit free agency.
Hard to complain about this inexpensive deal. The get are the two free agent plus vesting option years. Fisher wanted a franchise face to carry over and open Vegas with. Nick Kurtz wasn’t on the radar yet.
Rooker, Butler and Soederstrom have had down years so far.. any reason why? A’s lineup can mash with anyone
Their manager and coaches suck.
Soderstrom is exactly where he was last year, with less strikeouts and more walks, they’re all notoriously slow starters…
Soderstrom has been on quite the roll the past 3 weeks, but I still think shark is right. The A’s coaches are pretty terrible, especially Emo. When pitchers leave and immediately look improved (i.e. Kuhnel and his increased velocity), you do have to start wondering why certain people are still employed on the A’s.
Put Butler in and leave him in. The next few games in Las Vegas ought to do wonders for his confidence.
Oh noes. Another hit to el fantasy team. At least Royce is back and doin the mash potatoe