The MLB announced the full rosters, including starters and reserves, for the upcoming All-Star Game and officially named designated hitter Brent Rooker as the Oakland Athletics representative in Seattle next week.
In the official breakdown of the rosters, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru wrote the following about Rooker:
"Rooker has cooled off of late, but his torrid April (.353/.465/.779 with nine homers and 22 RBIs) helped propel him to his first All-Star roster. It’s quite a story, considering the 28-year-old had only played 81 MLB games entering this season and was selected off waivers by the A’s from the Royals last November."Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru
This will be Rooker's first appearance in an All-Star game. Rooker takes the baton from starting pitcher Paul Blackburn, who was the A's player making it to the All-Star last year as the lone member of the Athletics to appear in the mid-summer event.
Man, I feel just like a Rook Star ⭐
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) July 2, 2023
Congratulations on your first All-Star selection, Brent! pic.twitter.com/YpWJUSymuv
Rooker signed a deal with Oakland last November after the A's claimed him off waivers following a stint with the Kansas City Royals. A former first-round draft pick coming out of Mississippi State in 2017, Rooker has struggled to find a place among his fellow major leaguers throughout his career even though he thrived in all minor-league levels.
The designated hitter got the second-most votes from MLB players at the DH position, only trailing Angels' do-it-all superstar Shohei Ohtani. Read that again.
Now that you are well aware of how highly top-level players value Rooker, then maybe you don't think the MLB rule mandating all franchises to have at least one player selected for the All-Star game is the only thing putting an Oakland Athletics player in the roster, do you?
Although Rooker has come down to Earth a bit after a scorching hot start to the year, he's still putting up reasonable numbers while keeping his averages reasonably high through the first half of the season.
Rooker was named AL Player of the Week for Apr. 24-30. That week, Rooker stepped up to the plate 33 times hitting 10 balls and bagging five homers. He scored 11 RBI, walked six times, and slashed .417/.546/1.083 in that span through seven games.
Here's hoping Rooker can at least log a plate appearance off the pine next week in Seattle!