The Cincinnati Reds have already made themselves a big trade this offseason, acquiring right-handed starting pitcher Brady Singer from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Jonathan India and minor league outfielder Joey Wiemer. That likely helps solve some of the pitching problems that could arise in 2025. But in 2024 it wasn’t so much the pitching that was a problem as much as it was that the offense was not at all good. Some of that could be chalked up to injuries, but even so it would be a good idea to add a quality bat to the lineup. One often talked about such bat is that of Brent Rooker.
The Athletics general manager David Forst has said that the team doesn’t plan to trade Rooker. But of course he’s going to say that. Even if it’s not true. ESPN’s David Schoenfield looked at “one big move for every team” and for Cincinnati it’s trading for the Athletics outfielder.
Rookie was a guy who made his debut in 2020 as a 25-year-old and played in just seven games. In 2021 and 2022 he played in 74 combined games for three teams and hit .190. But in 2023 he wound up with Oakland and made the All-Star team while hitting 30 home runs and posting an .817 OPS (127 OPS+). Last season he hit 39 home runs as a 29-year-old and put up a .927 OPS (165 OPS+).
Over the last two years he’s gone from a replacement level player to a middle of the order slugger. As Schoenfield notes in his article, Oakland would likely be selling high on Rooker after his 2024 season. He will be arbitration eligible for the first time in 2025 and is estimated to make $5,100,000 by MLB Trade Rumors projections.
Adding a guy with 30+ home runs would probably help quite a bit. Cincinnati had three hitters reach 20 homers in 2024 – Elly De La Cruz with 25 and Spencer Steer and Jeimer Candelario both had 20. There were times during the season where TJ Friedl was hitting cleanup for the Reds. And while Friedl’s a solid hitter, there’s not a good team that would have him in the middle of their order.
Of course being able to trade for someone like Brent Rooker, who is still making very little money and has three more seasons of team control remaining before free agency comes calling, won’t be “cheap”. Schoenfield believes it would take trading away Rhett Lowder. But he thinks it would be worth it with Cincinnati having a handful of good starting pitching options in the big leagues as well as several top prospects who could be ready to help out in 2025 if the rotation needs some more help.
Lowder, the Reds 2023 1st round draft pick, rocketed to the big leagues in 2024. He began his season in High-A with Dayton and quickly moved up to Double-A where he spent half of the season before a short stop in Triple-A before the team’s #3 prospect joined the Reds rotation in August. In his final 13 starts of the year between the minor leagues and the big leagues he posted a 1.02 ERA in 70.2 innings pitched – with almost half of those innings coming in the big leagues.
Without Lowder, the Reds rotation would still include Hunter Greene, Nick Martinez, Brady Singer, and two of the following: Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft, #2 prospect Chase Petty, or perhaps later in the year – #2 overall pick in 2024’s draft and the team’s top prospect – Chase Burns.
It would certainly be an interesting trade for both clubs. The Athletics, unsure about where they will be playing for several years and are stuck playing in a minor league ballpark in the short term in Sacramento, aren’t likely going to be finding too many willing free agents to sign up and play for them if they’ve got other reasonable options on the table. Adding a young starter like Lowder would boost their pitching staff. For Cincinnati they would potentially be trading from a strength (with the caveat being that you can never, ever have enough pitching) and possibly fill their biggest weakness.
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