{"id":683616,"date":"2026-04-26T21:48:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/683616\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:48:44","slug":"athletics-designate-andy-ibanez-for-assignment-reinstate-brent-rooker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/683616\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletics Designate Andy Ibanez For Assignment, Reinstate Brent Rooker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outfielder Brent Rooker<\/a> is back with the Athletics after missing a little over two weeks with an oblique strain. The club has designated infielder Andy Ibanez<\/a> for assignment to clear a roster spot for Rooker, per a team announcement. Rooker is batting fourth as the DH today against the Rangers.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers gave Ibanez a one-year, $1.2MM deal in January. They tried to get him through waivers in February, but the A\u2019s swooped in and claimed him. It was a reasonable move considering Ibanez\u2019s solid production as a platoon bat in recent years with the Tigers. The veteran struggled in his brief time with the club, though. Ibanez hit just .118 in 11 games. He spent time at every infield position except shortstop.<\/p>\n

After a couple of seasons with the Rangers, Ibanez came to the Tigers via waiver claim heading into 2023. He earned semi-regular work for the first time as a big leaguer, delivering a 103 wRC+ across 383 plate appearances. Ibanez\u2019s numbers tailed off the following season, though not against lefties. The righty swinger posted a .802 OPS vs. southpaws in 2024. Detroit leaned harder into the platoon approach last year, limiting Ibanez to just 52 at-bats against righties. He slashed a respectable .258\/.311\/.403 in 124 ABs against lefties.<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s got the memo about Ibanez\u2019s splits. It just didn\u2019t work out for them in a tiny sample. The infielder went 2-for-16 against lefties. Ibanez was 0-for-1 with a walk in his scant chances against righties. The club was able to take advantage of the veteran\u2019s defensive versatility, as he drew starts at first, second, and third base. Ibanez has been a plus defender by Defensive Runs Saved at all four infield spots for his career.<\/p>\n

With Ibanez DFAed, the A\u2019s will have five days to trade him or put him on waivers. He could be attractive to a team hunting for infield depth, though the price tag is a bit higher than a typical waiver claim. If he makes it through waivers, the A\u2019s could look to stash him in the minors, if he permits it. Ibanez has been outrighted in his career, so he has the right to reject a minor league assignment and opt for free agency.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Scott Marshall, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outfielder Brent Rooker is back with the Athletics after missing a little over two weeks with an oblique…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[3806,537,5,545,4,3226],"class_list":["post-683616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-athletics","tag-andy-ibanez","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-brent-rooker","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-athletics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116473213983834856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}