SAN FRANCISCO — In deciding to keep — not trade — Brent Rooker, the A’s communicated a very clear point: they believe they can win in the not-so-distant future. A long road remains, to be sure. They will, in all likelihood, finish this season with a losing record. They could possibly lose 100 games for a third consecutive season. By retaining Rooker, though, the front office is expressing faith in the team’s foundation, that they can, in time, bring a winner to Sacramento.
“If you look around the diamond right now and look at some of the pitching, we’re not as healthy on the pitching side as we’d like to be,” said general manager David Forst following the trade deadline, “but you can see the players who are going to be here when we compete again for a playoff spot.”
A win following Tuesday’s trade deadline — a 5-2 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park — does not validate the front office’s decision to keep Rooker. Time could reveal that the A’s would’ve been better off cashing in their chips. But for a night, one where JP Sears tossed seven shutout innings and Rooker led a four-homer brigade, the A’s rewarded the front office’s faith.
Now, they’ll have to continue doing so.
“I’m ecstatic to be here because I think we have a special group in here and we’re building things in the right direction,” Rooker said. “I think we (have) momentum. I think we’re playing well, I think we’re getting better. I think that me still being here signifies that the front office feels the same way.”
“This group is starting to believe in themselves, and that’s powerful when that happens,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “We saw a group in (2017) at the end of the season start to believe in themselves and come together. It’s really nice to see them all having fun and enjoying all the success of their hard work.”
This version of the A’s, currently 45-64, is not quite in the same position as the aforementioned 2017 team, which won 75 games before totaling 97 victories over the next two seasons. The foundational pieces, though, are emerging.
Rooker has been one of baseball’s best hitters over the last two seasons. Lawrence Butler is coming into his own. Mason Miller is arguably the best closer in baseball. Jacob Wilson, currently sidelined with a hamstring injury, breezed through the minors. The team remains both young and flawed. But as they wrap up their first winning month in two years, they find themselves playing with a confidence that they have not experienced in quite some time.
“Confidence in baseball is everything,” Butler said. “You have to feel confident going up to the plate. Even though sometimes it’s not going to work out your way, the confidence helps. It helps everybody. If one person comes in confident, it’s going to feed off on the next person and the next person and we start playing better ball.”
Added Rooker: “It’s the best baseball that we’ve played since I’ve been here, and that’s feeding into the confidence. It’s allowing us to feel good every day we show up to the park.”
Nights like tonight, one in which the A’s outclassed the Giants after they made their own decision to stand pat, only serve to enliven Oakland’s collective belief.
Daz Cameron got the A’s on the scoreboard by sneaking a solo shot over the left-field fence in the second inning, giving the green and gold a lead that they’d never relinquish. Butler doubled the advantage with a 106.5-mph, 402-foot solo shot of his own that landed in Oakland’s bullpen. Rooker hit a towering, awe-inspiring two-run shot halfway up the left-field bleachers in the fifth inning, and JJ Bleday’s eighth-inning solo shot to the right-field arcade served as the dagger. That was more than enough offense for Sears, who blanked the Giants across seven innings and recorded a season-high nine strikeouts.
“He won’t stop,” Butler said of Rooker. “He hasn’t stopped all year. He’s been on fire all year. I know people are just starting to notice, but he’s been raking all year. Every time I hit a homer, he hits one to one up me. He lets me know it, too. It’s fun watching him just go out there and bang. He’s given me a lot of confidence.”
In deciding to keep — not trade — Rooker, he and Butler will have plenty of opportunities to try one-upping each other in the coming months. The coming years will determine whether the A’s made the right decision.
