A quality showing from the Athletics DH
Athletics Designated Hitter Brent Rooker had a fine showing in his first Home Run Derby on Monday evening, bashing 17 home runs in the first round but ultimately losing a tie breaker and getting eliminated after just one trip to the plate.
Rook was the second batter up tonight, going after Nationals outfielder James Wood, who had just hit 16 home runs a few moments earlier. Rooker came out on absolute fire, hitting three straight home runs and eight big flies on his first nine swings. He slowed down hard after that but he still managed to hit enough home runs to temporarily take the lead. He was really punishing the ball when he made contact tonight with six homers traveling more than 440 feet. His average distance was 428 feet.
After that all Rooker could do was watch and hope his total of 17 would be enough to send him to the knockout round. He watched as fellow Derby contestants Junior Caminero, Oneil Cruz, and Byron Buxton all passed his total but he was still in a solid position with just a couple more batters to go. Jazz Chisholm was out fast after hitting just three home runs, with now just Cal Raleigh and Matt Olson to go.
Well Raleigh didn’t pass Rooker’s total, but he did tie him with 17 jacks. And then after Olson hit 15 during his turn, it seemed to everyone that we had a swing-off coming between Rooker and Raleigh to see who would advance to the next round. Instead, MLB apparently changed the rules before the Derby and didn’t let people know, going with the longest-hit homer as the tie-breaker. Raleigh’s longest was 470.61 feet, which bested Rooker’s 470.53 longest homer, sending Raleigh on to the next round and ending Rooker’s night by mere inches. That stung.
It’s one thing to change the rules (in my opinion for the worse), but then to not tell all the participants until the very last possible moment is frustrating for everyone involved, and Rooker said as much while watching the rest of the event:
Rooker tells me: “You know, maybe if they have it to the decimal point, they should display that during the Derby and not wait till everyone’s done to bring out that information that might be helpful.”
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) July 15, 2025
Who knows if him knowing that would have changed anything but it’s entirely possible. That wasn’t the only way Rooker got the short end of the stick tonight. He also left two pitches on the table, but not due to his fault. There was a communication issue apparently and Rooker was shafted two extra swings:
Brent Rooker tells me he actually only got 38 pitches not 40 – he was told he could take two but didn’t realize that there were only 40 balls, period, available for him to hit.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) July 15, 2025
That seems like insanely poor planning on the part of the Derby organizers. There should have been plenty of extra balls for him to get a swing at, and those extra two pitches could have made the difference in who won tonight since he had about 10 extra seconds to go. Raleigh, who won the tie-breaker, would go on to win the entire thing, besting Caminero in the final round to take home the honors for Seattle and make history as the first catcher to win the Derby. Now we’ll all be wondering what-ifs for a while.
The controversy didn’t seem to ruin Rooker’s night though as he posted to social media after the Derby to express his joy at getting to participate:
What a blast! It was an honor to compete against those guys and fulfill a childhood dream. Congrats to Cal and everyone else who made it a great night! Still hard to believe I get opportunities to do things like this.
— Brent Rooker (@Brent_Rooker25) July 15, 2025
He made it into the Derby, and didn’t embarrass himself. Now we can only hope that tonight didn’t mess up his swing heading into the second half. Always love watching A’s players in the Derby. Well done, Brent!