Renewed Rumors: Phillies Consider Trading for Oakland’s Proven Talent

The Philadelphia Phillies were expected to chase an Athletics bat at the trade deadline and are now expected to revisit a deal this winter.

When coming up with the top 25 trade candidates across MLB this offseason, Mike Axisa of CBS Sports once again linked the Phillies to A’s slugger Brent Rooker.

“Rooker is about to get expensive (projected $5.1 million through arbitration) and the Athletics don’t do expensive. I do think there’s a chance the A’s keep him because he is their best player and they want someone fans recognize when they move to Sacramento next year. I’m certain teams will try to pry him loose though.”

The 30-year-old’s emergence as one of baseball’s best bats has been will-hidden by playing for the Atheltics.

He posted a very impressive .293/.365/.562 slashing line this past season with 39 home runs and 112 RBI to boot.

Rooker was a 38th round draft pick by the Minnesota Twins back in 2016 after an impressive three years with the Mississippi State Bulldogs while in college. The promise of his bat was very high, but there still weren’t many expectations of him becoming the player that he is today.

Over his first five seasons in the minors, he did show flashes of a 20+ home run guy with a solid batting average.

The Tennessee native was moved around a couple of stops as a part of a couple of trades before the A’s picked him up off of waivers after the 2022 season.

It was nearly instantly proven to be a great signing as something finally clicked for the slugger as he made his first All-Star game the next year. He’s now hit at least 30 home runs in each of the last two seasons.

If given the chance, he has the makings to be a star on a contending team. Now makes as much sense as any for the Atheltics to trade him and pick up as much as they can for the future.

Philadelphia is understandably itching for a World Series. They are not worried about the bevy of intriguing young prospects they have sitting at the top of the farm system.

Adding another elite bat to the outfield, especially another right handed bat, should be the top priority this offseason. They may as well go all out for the best player available.

It certainly wouldn’t fix their problem of getting younger, but that simply isn’t a worry right now given how much closer they are to contending.