Kansas City Royals Could Use These Two Bats Back

Not long ago, the Kansas City Royals had two players on their roster that will now be representing the American League at DH in the 2025 All Star Game. Those players are Baltimore's Ryan O'Hearn, and the Athletics' Brent Rooker.

Rooker was acquired by Kansas City from the San Diego Padres in August of 2022 in exchange for catcher Cam Gallagher, and was quickly added to the Royals roster. He received 25 at-bats on a team that finished 65-97, batting .160 with a .276 OBP in the process, before being optioned back to Triple-A on September 9.

The Royals would designate him for assignment after the World Series, and the A's would claim him on waivers. He was named an All Star in 2023, should have been one in 2024, and is back where he belongs in 2025, all while becoming a bat that can hit .284 with 58 homers over the past season and a half.

Rooker has also become a clubhouse leader for the A's, not just for his production, but also because of the journey that he's been on to become an All Star caliber player has not been a smooth one. He's had plenty of setbacks since being selected in the first round of the MLB Draft, and has filled numerous roles on the roster.

He has been traded twice, and was also designated for assignment, so he's able to talk to pretty much anyone in the A's clubhouse with some experience of what they're going through.

The Royals also had O'Hearn, but his story is a tad different. He was an eighth rounder in 2014, selected by the Royals, and he climbed his way to the big leagues in 2018 where he had a solid 44 games in his rookie campaign, putting up 12 homers while batting .262 with a .353 on-base.

He then hit .195 in both 2019-20, and his opportunities weren't as frequent in 2021-22 after he combined for ten home runs in 151 games and was getting on base below a .300 clip. That led the Royals to trade him to the Orioles for cash in 2023, and he immediately improved his numbers, batting .289 with a .322 OBP and 14 home runs in 346 at-bats that season.

This season he is batting .286 with a .378 on-base and 11 homers for the struggling O's, but he has been good enough to be voted in by the fans as the AL's starting DH.

Meanwhile, the Royals, a team with postseason aspirations at 45-48 and four games back of the third AL Wild Card spot, have one of the worst offenses in the game. As a team this season, they have an 83 wRC+ (100 is league average) which ranks them 27th in MLB. To be fair, they are a bit better at DH, with a cumulative 101 wRC+ coming from the position.

This all said, both the A's and O's would love to be in the position, as a team, that Kansas City is in--which is in postseason contention. The A's (38-55) and Baltimore (40-50) are well behind the Royals where it matters most.