Elephant Rumblings: Brent Rooker among best offseason acquisitions

Brent Rooker struck out four times in Friday’s series opening loss to the Houston Astros. However, that performance doesn’t put too much of a damper on what has been a remarkable season thus far. The A’s claimed Rooker off waivers from the Royals this past November and he has blossomed into one of the best hitters in the game over the first quarter of the 2023 season. So much so, he comes in at No. 3 on MLB.com’s list of best offseason acquisitions.

The task is to pick the offseason acquisition whose performance has looked the best to this point in the season. With 11 homers and a .984 OPS, Rooker is hard to pass up. He’s unlikely to finish among MLB’s batting leaders, but he has shown enough that the A’s might have snagged — off waivers! — a potential building block (or enticing trade chip?) in the 28-year-old slugger. After all, Rooker has a pedigree (2017 first-round Draft pick), consistently hits the ball hard (top 10 in barrels per plate appearance and xwOBA) and is improving his plate discipline (14.3 percent walk rate).

A’s fans might want to skip the top part of the list where Sean Murphy comes in at No. 1 as he has taken a significant step forward in his first season with the Atlanta Braves.

A’s Coverage’

• Athletics fall to Astros 5-1
• A’s place Zach Jackson on injured list, designate Zach Neal for assignment
• Young A’s on-point on defense in opener vs. Astros
• Lucas Erceg makes MLB debut with childhood team
• Aledmys Diaz picks up hardware in return to Houston
• Oakland mayor says city is open to deal if A’s re-engage

MLB News

• Jacob deGrom says he ‘turned a corner’ in latest BP session
• Manny Machado placed on IL with fractured left hand
• ‘He’s building up’: Liam Hendriks throws bullpen session with Sox
• Cubs designate Eric Hosmer for assignment
• Yankees acquire Greg Allen from Red Sox
• Wade Miley likely to miss 6-8 weeks
• Mets select Gary Sanchez, place Tim Locastro on 60-Day IL
• Astros to activate Jose Altuve

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