A Phillies-Athletics trade for Brent Rooker after dominant Sunday performance

Brent Rooker, the Oakland Athletics' breakout outfielder, is one of the most likely players to be traded ahead of the 2024 MLB trade deadline. There are a ton of different teams that fit for the right-handed hitting outfielder.

Among these teams, the Philadelphia Phillies continue to find themselves connected to him more than others. There's good reason for that too. Philadelphia isn't just contending and looking to buy, but they're actively pursuing a right-handed hitting outfielder with incredible urgency.

Rooker, under contract through 2025, fits the bill perfectly. He's slashing .291/.369/.573 with 21 homers and 18 doubles before the All-Star break. He has continued to mash, hitting well over .450 in the month of July.

With Philadelphia unlikely to meet the steep asking price for a bat like Luis Robert Jr., they could land on Rooker, who would be quite a bit less expensive, but still could cost them a pretty penny.

Philadelphia has the prospect capital to go out and acquire him, quite comfortably too.

A Phillies-Athletics trade after Brent Rooker's incredible two week stretch

Over the last month, Rooker has raised his trave value quite a bit. 2024 no longer looks like a hot stretch to begin the year, but more so a breakout season that should be followed by more year's like it.

Still, his price tag is a fair bit lower than Robert Jr.'s reported value.

A month ago, nobody would have imagined that Rooker could fetch two top 10 prospects in a farm system like the Phillies'. But after his hot stretch and his Silver Slugger-esque first half, buying teams may have no choice but to pay that price for him.

Saltiban, 19, is the Phillies' sixth-ranked prospect and a fringe top-100 prospect in baseball. He's an incredibly talented, potential five-tool infield prospect. But, he's stuck in a farm system loaded with young middle infield talent. Obviously the Phillies can never have too much talent, but in a few years, they can only play one player at shortstop and that's likely to be Aidan Miller. Saltiban is slashing .227/.347.409 in his age 19 season at the Low-A level.

Rincones, 23, is slashing .275/.393/.507 in a limited sample size in 2024. The lefty swinger projects as a bat first outfielder with a good amount of pop. He would be quite the offensive addition to the A's farm system with potential to crack the big leagues late next season.

Rooker to Philly is a dream scenario for the Phillies. A Robert trade would likely include one or two of the top-five prospects while a Rooker trade shouldn't require anybody from the top five. And frankly, Rooker is having a much better season in 2024 than Robert is.