Miguel Rojas (baseball)


Miguel Elias Rojas Naidernoff is a Venezuelan professional baseball infielder for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball. He previously played for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Professional career

Los Angeles Dodgers

Rojas was signed by the Cincinnati Reds organization as an amateur free agent in 2006, and played in their minor league system through 2012, making it as far as the AAA Louisville Bats to end his 2012 season. He joined the Dodgers organization in 2013 and played for the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Class AA Southern League, where he hit.233 in 130 games. In 2014, he received a non-roster invite to Major League spring training, where he was given a chance to compete for the vacant second base job. The Dodgers assigned him to the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes to start 2014, where he hit.302 in 51 games.
Rojas was called up to the Majors for the first time by the Dodgers on June 6, 2014, and made his debut as a late inning defensive replacement. His first hit was a single off Matt Belisle of the Colorado Rockies in his first start on June 8, 2014.
Rojas finished the 2014 regular season hitting only.181 with 1 home run and 9 RBIs in 85 games. He frequently took over for Hanley Ramírez at shortstop late in games for defensive purposes. On June 18, he successfully made an extremely difficult defensive play to preserve a no hitter thrown by Clayton Kershaw in the 7th inning.

Miami Marlins

On December 10, 2014, Rojas was traded to the Miami Marlins, along with Dee Gordon and Dan Haren, in exchange for Andrew Heaney, Chris Hatcher, Austin Barnes, and Enrique "Kiké" Hernández.
In 2018, he batted.252/.297/.346.
In 2019, he batted.284/.331/.379, with the lowest Isolated Power in the National League.
In 2020 Miguel communicated with his team via group text to determine whether they should continue to play after a COVID-19 outbreak on the team. They decided "yes". Miguel is not a doctor or part of the Marlins medical staff. His actions contributed to not only negatively impacting his own team, the Miami Marlins, but also affected the Phillies series against the New York Yankees as well. Miguel ultimately ended up being one of the key players for the Marlins that tested positive.