As the Athletics finish out spring training, Brent Rooker is starting to regain his All-Star form from a year ago.
Speaking to MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos earlier this week, Rooker explained that he had been working on his swing, experimenting with different plate positioning.
While Rooker initially struggled in spring training this season, a fix to his swing mechanics has improved the 29-year-old’s batting immensely, with multiple home runs in recent games.
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“When I’m going bad, it’s almost never my swing as much as it is a getting ready or load issue,” Rooker said.
“If I feel like I’m getting ready the right way pre-pitch and loading the right way, my swing always follows that. I just kind of found something. I use a toe tap as my timing mechanism and I found a little trigger in a way that I was getting to my toe tap that put me on time a little bit more and put me in a better hitting position where my front foot landed.”
Rooker was one of the biggest surprises in MLB last season, with a breakout campaign in which he hit 30 homers with 20 doubles, 69 RBIs and a .817 OPS and was named an All-Star for the first time in his career. Now with a full season of major-league ball behind him, and positive momentum coming out of spring training, Rooker is feeling confident heading into Opening Day.
“Being able to have that different mindset and approach has been cool for me, and I think it’s going to be beneficial,” Rooker explained. “It’s always good to be feeling your best the week before. Hopefully, I just keep that going into Opening Day.”
Oakland Athletics
Prior to his breakout season, Rooker had bounced around the minor leagues for the first six years of his professional career before barely making the A’s Opening Day roster at the start of the 2023 season.
The A’s look to turn the page after back-to-back 100-loss seasons and get back to respectability, with Rooker and the rest of the young lineup focused on having a productive season amid the uncertainty of the team’s pending relocation to Las Vegas.