Brent Rooker Runs the Gauntlet, Plays in All 162

For the first time in over five seasons, the A's have had a player appear in all 162 contests, as All-Star slugger Brent Rooker just achieved this feat following yesterday's season-ending loss against the Kansas City Royals.

The slugger also put up another 30-homer season this year, giving him a 30-homer year in each of his three seasons with the green and gold. In those three seasons, he's now a two-time All-Star, a Silver Slugger award winner, and has finished top-10 in MVP votes. The A's iron-man is not just impressing by staying healthy and on the field, but is also becoming one of the league's top hitters.

Getting into all 162 games this season wasn't exactly easy, either. A's manager Mark Kotsay said after the finale that Rook had been dealing with "a little tendonitis in the foot area" and that he "really grinded through these last six or seven games."

Kotsay even added that he'd talked to Rooker about the streak. "I tried to go to him and make a case that 162 is just a number. But for Rook, it was more than a number. It was the mindset that he wanted to finish off this season, and for himself, really to prove that the work he put in during the offseason, the time that he spent strengthening his body and preparing to play 162 became a reality."

Rooker was asked postgame how he felt about the streak, now that he'd made it through all 162, and he said that it would have been easy when there's a tough guy on the mound to take a day to have a mental reset, but "just having the fortitude to stick with it and grind through it, and go through those tough times is something that I am proud of."

Rooker received a long-term extension this past off-season, and he will be one of two players under guaranteed contract when the A's are expected to arrive in Las Vegas. Lawrence Butler is the other, as he also cashed in last off-season after an impressive second half of the '24 season.

Brent Rooker's 162 games seems like a lot of games in a row, however, his streak is much longer than that, as he has currently appeared in all of the A's last 202 games, which dates back to August 17th, 2024. Only Marcus Semien has had a longer streak, which was 276 games in a row between 2018-2020.

Speaking of Semien, the last time the A's had a player appeared in all 162 games was back in 2019 when he did just that. Matt Olson played in all 60 games in the shortened 2020 season, and also played in all 162 back in 2018. Olson has also played in all 162 games in each of his four seasons since joining the Atlanta Braves.

Since Matt Olson and Marcus Semien's times with the A's, the club hasn't had anyone too close to appearing in every game. In 2024, outfielder JJ Bleday came close with 159 games played. In 2023, the team didn't even have a single player appear in more than 140 games.

Across MLB this season, only five players, including Rooker, were able to appear in all 162 games. Rafael Devers of the San Francisco Giants would actually appear in 163 games, as when he was dealt to the Giants after he'd already have played one more game with the Red Sox than the Giants had, and he didn't miss a single game with either team.

It's not super common to see guys go out and play the entire season as injuries constantly prevalent, and managers work on protecting their stars by giving them days off. However, since you don't see it all the time, it's nice to give these guys recognition for going out there and getting on the field every day.

We'll have to wait until Spring Training to see if Rooker wants to attempt this again.