The career of Brent Rooker finally took off last year after being claimed by the Athletics, and
then controversially winning a spot on the opening day roster ahead of former blue-chip
prospect Cristian Pache. After struggling for parts of three years on three different teams,
Rooker made significant swing adjustments going into 2023 which paid off spectacularly. 30
home runs, an .819 OPS, good peripherals and an All-Star game nod capped off a breakout
season for the slugger.

Going into 2024, one might’ve expected Rooker to address his 32.7% K-Rate, 27.3% chase
rate, or even improve his already great exit velocity numbers. A third of the way into the season,
Rooker holds a .911 OPS and a 161 WRC+, both significant improvements from last year’s
figures, yet all of the aforementioned peripherals have worsened. He’s not making more contact,
he’s swinging at more chase and waste pitches (well out of the strike zone), and virtually
maintained the same average exit velocity and a hard hit rate.

While on the surface it would appear as though Rooker has been lucky and is due for
regression, just the opposite is true, and his elite offensive production can be attributed to a few
often overlooked areas in which he’s made adjustments.

Swing Decisions
While Rooker is chasing more this year than last, his shadow zone swing decisions have
improved drastically. After posting a -14 run value on shadow zone swing decisions last year,
Rooker is at a +3 this season, equal with Christian Yelich and Brandon Nimmo.

He’s seeing more pitches out of the strike zone this season, but more pitches in the heart of the
zone as well, and swinging at these pitches almost 10% more often. Rooker’s swing/take run
value on heart-of-the-plate pitches is now 9th in all of baseball, just behind Juan Soto.

Approach
Last season, Rooker did most of his damage on 4-seam fastballs and cutters, with an SLG over
.800 against those two pitches. He struggled against breaking balls and offspeed pitches, and
as a result, pitchers began to throw him far more sliders and fewer fastballs to start off 2024.
Rooker’s adjustment was almost instant, as he’s spread his damage across every pitch type,
with positive run values against virtually every pitch.

This is also reflected in his swing path data, with a 2 degree drop in Vertical Bat Angle (VBA) via
swinggraphs.com for a second year in a row, which may give him a quicker swing trigger, and
thus more time to adjust to the pitch, and to decide whether to swing or not. This theory would
also be supported by his 8% increase in pulled batted balls.

Launch
Rooker has increased his average launch angle by 2.5%, and against breaking balls and
offspeed pitches, by 4%. As a result, he’s more than doubled his slugging percentage against
breaking balls, and the slug isn’t the only significant benefit of this change.

Rooker’s LA Sweet-Spot% (Launch Angle Sweet-Spot, % of batted balls with launch angle
between 8 and 32 degrees) has increased by 7% from last year, leading to a .028 increase in
his xBA, even with the same hard hit percentage. LA SS% is a great tool to measure
consistency in hitting line drives, and with Rooker’s exit velocities, the return from such a drastic
improvement was always likely to be significant.

Conclusion
The culmination of these changes likely indicates a change in hitting philosophy, with Rooker
looking to focus on mashing pitches in the middle of the zone, rather than looking for fastballs.
While selling out for slug usually results in high swing and miss, Rooker has balanced that by
improving his walk rate significantly, likely a byproduct of his reduced swing rate on shadow
zone pitches. This improvement on shadow zone decisions correlates to a reduction in his
ground ball percentage as well, as he is now less likely to swing at sinkers and changeups just
below the strike zone.

For Rooker’s fantasy value, this is nothing but a positive. Many may perceive the reductions in
metrics mentioned in the second paragraph as proof that Rooker’s improvements are merely a
flash in the pan, but a deep dive into his adjustments suggests otherwise. Especially with the
possibility of a trade to a contending club, Rooker holds outstanding fantasy value, and at a
bare minimum, is a starting caliber outfielder in any format.

The strikeouts will remain high, but the payoff with power will more than compensate, and for
category leagues, he won’t kill you with his batting average. The counting stats are good
already, but have elite potential if he’s traded to a good offensive club. Assuming he’s owned in
your league, it’s worth testing the waters with a trade to acquire him from someone looking to
sell high, when in reality, this appears to be wholly sustainable.