ARLINGTON -- Brent Rooker is a stranger to the injured list, having played in 214 consecutive games before he found himself there earlier this month. Naturally, he wanted his stint to be as brief as possible -- but oblique muscle injuries are notorious for not cooperating with timelines.
So it was a relief for the A’s and their designated hitter that he was back in the A’s lineup Sunday at Globe Life Field, for their series finale against the Rangers, after only 16 days on the IL. He suffered the right oblique strain on April 9 at Yankee Stadium, leaving the game in the middle of his first at-bat after a painful swing.
“I’m lucky that progressed so well, and to get back as quickly as I did,” Rooker said before Sunday’s game, in which he was slated to bat cleanup.
Rooker was one of baseball’s most prolific hitters over the past three seasons, posting an OPS of .853 from 2023-25, the fifth-best among American Leaguers who played in at least 400 games during that span. That put him in elite company, behind only Aaron Judge (1.119), Bobby Witt Jr. (.881), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.859) and José Ramírez (.855).
But Rooker got off to a subpar start this season. In the first 12 games before the injury, Rooker slashed just .146/.245/.293 with two home runs. He struck out in 34.7 percent of his plate appearances after striking out in only 22.2 percent in 2025. Rooker is squaring up swings less often, chasing more and whiffing more than he did last season.
So Rooker tried to take advantage of his two weeks out of the lineup, examining older, more productive at-bats to see what might have changed.
“I spent the time watching a lot of video of times that I've been at my best, and trying to re-create those moves, and trying to see what that looked like, and remember what that felt like, and just using it as a reference point for when I get back,” Rooker said. “You compare swings of when you're not at your best and swings of when you are at your best, and kind of see what the differences are. And if you can spot some things to work on, or spot a few adjustments here and there to make, it's always a positive use of time.”
That time was mercifully short. Recovering from oblique injuries often takes 4-6 weeks.
“I think within the first few days after it happened, I kind of started to feel better pretty quickly ... the symptoms went away fairly quickly,” Rooker said before Sunday’s game. “We were able to get back to some activity a little quicker than we anticipated, and then from there, I just felt good.”