Brent Rooker Injury Update: When Will Athletics DH Return?

Brent Rooker has been one of the top power hitters in baseball the past few years as he posted three straight seasons with 30 or more dingers from 2023 to 2025. The designated hitter and corner outfielder for the Athletics is currently on the injured list with a bone bruise in his left knee. Below, we will take a glance at when Rooker is expected to return to the Athletics lineup.

Brent Rooker injury update: When will A’s DH return?
The Athletics made the decision to place Rooker on the 10-day injured list on June 12, although it is retroactive to June 8. June 8 was the last day that Rooker played, so there was a few days of deliberation on whether or not Rooker would try and play through the injury.

“The knee just wasn’t improving,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay told MLB.com. “It wasn’t, for the most part, staying stable. It was getting worse, so from that standpoint, we made the decision to IL him. He did have a cortisone injection into the knee, which should hopefully help the healing process. The outlook right now is that there’s a chance we get him back in 10 days. But we’re going to definitely make sure this thing is healed before we made the decision to put him back out there.”

Minor knee bone bruises can often take up to 4 to 8 weeks to recover from, but it is highly unlikely that Rooker is out for anywhere close to that long. The best-case scenario is that he is back in the A’s lineup this weekend against the Angels. The more likely scenario is that he returns sometime during the A’s upcoming six-game road trip.

Here is a look at the A’s upcoming schedule:

Brent Rooker outlook
Rooker is a two-time All-Star, having made the cut in 2023 and 2025. He also won the Silver Slugger Award in 2024. His best season in the Majors came in 2024 when he clubbed 39 home runs, drove in 112 runs and hit .293.

Rooker had a strong month of May in the power department as he mashed 6 home runs and drove in 18 runs. He had two homers and 3 RBI in June before the injury. The 31-year-old is rostered in 87 percent of Yahoo! fantasy baseball leagues.

Rooker began the season with longshot +12500 odds of winning American League MVP, but is not currently listed on Fanatics Sportsbook’s AL MVP odds board.

Athletics odds
The A’s had +8000 odds to win the World Series prior to the start of the season. They have chopped that number to +6500 as they are just 1.5 games out of first place in the AL West despite an under-.500 record (36-38).

Fanatics currently has the A’s at +370 to win the division.