Guardians must turn attention elsewhere with Oakland wanting to retain Brent Rooker

With the MLB Trade Deadline just days away, the Cleveland Guardians continue to see their potential options to acquire dwindle. The most recent was a report from Jon Heyman regarding a lack of willingness on the part of the Oakland Athletics to trade Brent Rooker before Tuesday.

While this is not an explicit "will not trade" report from Heyman, being hesitant to trade one of their few genuine trade pieces is going to alter the landscape of the deadline and who teams like the Guardians will look to acquire. Perhaps this is just posturing on Oakland's part in order to get a better trade package, and they will agree to a deal if the right price is met. If that turns out to be the case, Cleveland should be pushing to bring Rooker into the fold.

The 29-year-old Rooker would have been an ideal addition to the Guardians in their current form. With a .288/.365/.583 slash line with 25 home runs and 19 doubles, Rooker's offensive production would have lengthened Cleveland's lineup, making it much more difficult for opposing teams to navigate properly.

Even though Rooker has primarily been Oakland's designated hitter this season (77 of his 91 appearances have been at DH), he has played 102.1 innings in the outfield for the Athletics in 2024. This is far from being an everyday outfielder, but having more than a handful of innings in the outfield this year could have helped the Guardians provide some thump in their lineup from a corner outfield spot while potentially being subbed out late for a defensive replacement.

Cleveland's front office needs to act with some sense of urgency, considering that the deadline coming in just a few days. The Guardians have already missed out on the opportunity to acquire Randy Arozarena from the Tampa Bay Rays, and Oakland's newfound reluctance to trade Rooker is going to result in fewer options to consider. When the next chance to trade for an impactful bat (outfielder or designated hitter) presents itself, the Guardians must do (almost) whatever it takes to acquire their services. If not, it could have a negative impact on how far they will be able to go this season, in addition to having a detrimental effect on clubhouse morale. But this is a scenario that would need to be assessed if the Guardians are unable to make any noteworthy additions before the deadline, a prospect nobody wants to happen.