Brent Rooker Will Get MVP Votes for His Breakout Season

If you ask fans “who should win the American League MVP?” you will likely hear names like Aaron Judge, Gunnar Henderson, Bobby Witt Jr., and other big names who dominate box scores and headlines. And rightfully so. Those players are some of the faces of baseball and have had miraculous seasons. But, let’s not overlook one of the best rags to riches stories; Brent Rooker.

The Oakland Athletics outfielder/Designated Hitter has been a great story.

From waiver wire claim to cementing himself as one of the best power hitters in baseball. While many were hesitate to buy in even after his 30 home run season in 2023, Rooker has proved he belongs in the conversation with the best players in the American League.

The 29-year-old has been one of the best hitters in baseball, and has led the Oakland A’s to a much better season than last year, improving by 16 wins with 12 games left to play. Cracking 70 wins may not seem like a huge accomplishment, but wherever they land it is a marked improvement over winning just 50 games in 2023.

While he won’t come close to winning the award, Rooker should find his name written on the ballot of 10 names a voters submit quite frequently when they are cast after the season.

All stats taken prior to play on September 17th

One of the Best Hitters in Baseball

Through 134 games, Rooker is slashing .302/.371/.493 with 38 home runs, 109 RBI, and 10 stolen bases, all of which are career-highs for the 29-year-old. Although Rooker has established himself as not just a fluke, baseball fans still come up short when it comes to giving him the credit he deserves.

You’ll notice how few players appear in the top seven in these three categories.

Of course, Aaron Judge is at or near the top and deserving of all the MVP talk he has generated, but Rooker is the only other player to appear in the top seven across the board (Witt Jr. is in the top 8).

We knew the power was there, but driving in 109 runs on the Oakland Athletics is certainly a feat of it’s own. A bump in average from .246 last year to .302 this season is also not talked about nearly enough.

I know what you are saying. This factor or that factor isn’t shown here and needs to be considered.

Sure, how you define most valuable player has been a debate for about as long as the award has been around. While there’s not perfect definition, the average, home runs, and RBI, as antiquated as it might be, is generally the leaders in MVP voting.

Defense, stolen bases, positional value, and so on could serve as a tie breaker in discussions, but rarely carry the voting alone. If you are in the camp of most valuable player = biggest difference if player x was removed from the team, than Rooker’s case is even stronger.

Rooker leads the A’s in hits, home runs, RBI, total bases, average, on base percentage, slugging, OPS, and WAR. In most cases, his lead is significant.

I’m not going to pretend the A’s are a roster full of high end talent making this comparison even more impressive, but you don’t need to see it that way for this particular discussion. If you think MVP = most valuable player to their team, removing Rooker makes the A’s look a lot different.

Regardless of how you define MVP, Rooker deserves down ballot votes.

Hell, he might deserve higher votes, but that’s not worth the arguing. A player who was a cast off of a few organizations has blossomed into one of the best offensive players in the American League and I think the votes should reflect just that.