The As have officially announced a five-year contract extension with designated hitter . The deal includes a club/vesting option for 2030. Rooker, a client of The Bledsoe Agency, is reportedly guaranteed $60MM. The options base value is $22MM and could push as high as $30MM based on his MVP finishes. Rooker had been under arbitration control for three seasons, so the deal buys out at least two free agent years. Rooker receives a $10MM signing bonus and a $2MM salary for the upcoming season. Hell make $6MM in 2026, $12MM in 27, $13MM in 28 and $17MM in 29. The $22MM option would vest if Rooker reaches 500 plate appearances in 2029 or combines for 900 PAs between 2028-29. Hed also unlock the option with two top 10 MVP finishes between 2027-29. Finishing in the top 10 in MVP balloting in any of the next five years could escalate the option value. Its another significant investment in what has been a huge offseason by As standards. As shown on MLBTRs , Rooker becomes the first As player to sign a five-year deal since the club extended starting pitcher for $30.5MM in 2011. Its the teams second investment for $60MM+ this winter. Last month, they added on a three-year, $67MM free agent deal that represented the largest contract in franchise history. Rooker securing such a contract would have been impo sible to envision two years ago. He landed with the As on a waiver claim early in the 2022-23 offseason. Rooker was a 28-year-old DH/corner outfielder who had bounced between the Twins, Padres and Royals without getting much of a look at any stop. As a former top 35 overall draft pick who had Curt Schilling Jersey hit well in the minors, he was a sensible waiver target. The As certainly didnt envision it working out this well, though. The righty-swinging Rooker has become not only one of the most succe sful waiver claims in recent memory but one of baseballs best hitters. He popped 30 home runs in 526 plate appearances to earn an All-Star selection in 2023. While he was snubbed from the Midsummer Cla sic last season, Rooker took another major step forward. He connected on 39 homers, 26 doubles and a pair of triples with a ma sive .293/.365/.562 batting line acro s 614 plate appearances. Rooker finished tied for fifth (alongside and ) in home runs. Only , , and hit more. Among hitters with at least 500 PAs, Rooker ranked in the top 20 in all three slash stats. He finished sixth in slugging trailing Judge, Ohtani, , Soto, and . Its now two seasons of borderline elite offensive production. Rooker has a .272/.348/.528 slash through more than 1100 plate appearances in an As uniform. Hes in the top 15 in slugging percentage and ranks ninth in homers since the start of the 23 campaign. Hes a middle-of-the-order presence. There is a decent amount of swing-and-mi s to his game. Rooker has fanned in more than 30% of his plate appearances with the As. Last years production was driven in part by a .362 average on balls in play thatll be difficult to maintain. Rooker makes a ton of hard contact, though, so hes probably in line for a modest BABIP regre sion rather than a huge drop-off. The ball-in-play normalization happened at the end of last season. Rooker carried an unsustainable .390 BABIP into the All-Star Break. That dropped to .333 in the second half. To his credit, Rooker compensated by cutting his strikeout rate to a much more manageable 24.1% clip during that stretch. It remains to be seen whether hell maintain that level of contact, but its an encouraging development that presumably affirmed the front offices confidence in his hitting acumen. Even if he doesnt hit .290 while pushing 40 home runs on an annual basis, Rooker should remain an impact bat. The As have made clear they envisioned him as the long-term anchor of their lineup. The team reportedly took him off the market in advance of last summers trade deadline. They had no interest in allowing trade rumors to rekindle during the offseason. GM David Forst declared within a week of the offseason beginning that the As werent dealing Rooker. Theyre doubling down by committing to him through at least the 2029 season. Rooker surpa sed three years of major league service last season. He was entering his first of three arbitration seasons. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had a $5.1MM salary for next year. Rooker will reportedly receive $30MM over what would have been his arbitration window. That leaves an average of $15MM annually for the two free agent seasons. Its not quite a front-loaded contract, but it appears Rooker will make a little more in the next couple years than he would have had he gone through the arbitration proce s. The team makes that tradeoff for the chance to keep him at below-market rates during the 2028-29 seasons which are scheduled to be their first two years in Las Vegas. The As didnt have any money guaranteed beyond 2027. Severino and recent trade pickup were their only players signed past next season. The As revenue sharing status has been a significant storyline this offseason. reported last month that the team could need to push its competitive balance tax payroll to roughly $105MM to avoid an MLBPA grievance. Teams are required to spend revenue sharing money on the on-field product. Extending Rooker will push their tax number up, though its not by a huge amount. The contract comes with a $12MM average annual value. The AAV is the number used for tax purposes, so it wouldnt matter how the salaries are distributed. Rooker had already been expected to make around $5MM next season. This adds roughly $7MM to the teams tax number, which will check in around $97MM (as calculated by ). The tax number isnt finalized until the end of the year, so the remainder of the As offseason and in-season activity can push that further. Tax considerations are relevant but are far from the only reason for the As to make this deal. If they were solely concerned about pushing next seasons CBT number, they could have signed a handful of mid-tier free agents to one-year contracts. Rooker turned 30 in November. A five-year commitment runs through his age-34 season. Theres some risk in a five-year deal for a player in his 30s who doesnt provide much defensive value. Yet if Rooker continues hitting at anywhere near this level, his arbitration price tag would have climbed quickly anyhow. He could have put himself in position for an AAV in the $20-25MM range once he hit free agency, a number that the As may have been disinclined to match. At the same time, its easy to see the appeal for Rooker of locking in the security. It wasnt that long ago that he looked like a fringe roster player. He wouldnt have gotten to free agency until his age-33 season, when a three- or four-year deal mightve been the ceiling. Sacrificing a little bit of long-term earning upside to avoid injury risk over the next couple seasons is understandable. This should also solidify Rookers spot in what looks to be an up-and-coming As lineup. , , , , and rebound candidate have promise as an offensive core. Last summers fourth overall pick could move quickly as a polished college hitter. The As still need a lot to break right to contend in 2025, but things are starting to come into focus. Soderstrom and Kurtz fit best at first base, so perhaps therell be a logjam down the line with Rooker locked in at designated hitter. Thatd be a good problem to have if both young first basemen reach their offensive ceilings and Rooker continues to hit at an All-Star level. first reported that the As and Rooker were in agreement on a five-year, $60MM deal with a vesting option that could get to $30MM. reported that the options base was $22MM and that Rooker would make $30MM over the first three seasons. reported the salary breakdown and the vesting provisions. Image courtesy of Imagn. Matt Williams Jersey