Former Mississippi State baseball star Brent Rooker will be staying with the Athletics for another five years, regardless of where that franchise ends up playing.
Following a 2024 season in which he ranked among the top 10 in Major League Baseball in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage, Rooker signed a five-year contract extension worth $60 million with a club option for 2030.
Rooker grew up in the Memphis area and played sparingly as a freshman with the Bulldogs in 2014, then became a part-time starter the following season. He broke out as a star in 2016, hitting .324 with a .578 slugging percentage. But that was just a warm-up for his 2017 season, which remains one of the finest individual campaigns in MSU history.
After spending the summer of 2016 with the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League, Rooker slashed .387/.495/.810 for the Bulldogs as a redshirt junior with 30 doubles, 23 homers and 82 RBI in 67 games. He was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and won the conference’s triple crown, leading the SEC in batting average, home runs and RBI.
The Minnesota Twins selected Rooker in the supplemental first round of the 2017 MLB Draft, 35th overall. Rooker made his MLB debut in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and after playing 58 games for the Twins in 2021, he was traded to the San Diego Padres in April 2022 before being dealt to the Kansas City Royals at the deadline that year.
The Athletics claimed Rooker off waivers after the 2022 season, and he made his first all-star team in 2023 with a career-best season in nearly all categories. He followed that up with a 2024 campaign that placed him in elite company, even on a struggling A’s team playing its final season in Oakland. The team will play at a minor league ballpark in Sacramento starting in 2025 while awaiting a potential move to Las Vegas.
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