3 Braves trade targets Atlanta must avoid at all costs and 1 risk to take

Braves rumors: Brent Rooker is absolutely worth the risk for Atlanta

The numbers for Brent Rooker this season in Oakland are going wholly overlooked because, well, the A’s are the worst team in baseball. But the left fielder and designated hitter has been legitimately one of the best hitters in the league to start the 2023 season.

Though 29 games this season for the Athletics, Rooker has been a monster, hitting .319 and leading all of baseball with a 1.122 OPS on the season. He’s already hit 10 home runs with 26 RBI and has a solid strikeout-to-walk ratio of 27-19 to begin the year as well.

Given that Rooker plays the exact same position and split as Ozuna and hits on the right side of the plate, this would make a massive amount of sense for the Braves in terms of their need. At the same time, though, the risk is obvious because, at 28 years old, we’ve quite literally never seen this from Rooker. Hell, he’s already set a career-high for homers in a season!

Atlanta trading with the A’s once again to land Rooker would be betting that he can keep up a level of performance he’s never shown before. That would be very much worth the risk, though.

Not only would Brent Rooker fill the obvious need on this roster, but because of his lack of track record playing at this level, the cost could be relatively modest. Moreover, Anthopolous and the Braves have a good trade relationship with the A’s, so groundwork could be easy to lay.

It wouldn’t be a surefire hit at the trade deadline but Rooker represents a risk well worth taking for a potential World Series contender.