By AJ Johnson
The Philadelphia Phillies are looking to win a World Series in 2024, and they have a veteran roster with enough experience/talent to pull that off. However, they still have some younger players to develop as well, with one of them being Johan Rojas. Rojas has notable had a poor Spring Training so far and struggled during last season’s postseason run as well. Luckly, his coach has his back.
Hitting coach for the club, Kevin Long, was asked about the struggles that his young player has had at the plate. Long said, “I’m not so concerned about, does he belong here? I think he does. I know he does. He does enough things.” It could genuinely be just an outlier of poor play from him that Rojas himself is hoping to snap out of quickly.
To put this into perspective, this past postseason saw him put up a terrible battling line. It was .093/.114/.163. To make matters far worse, he had more strikeouts with 15 of them, than he did hits with only four. Of course, when you perform like that on a stage as big as the playoffs, you have many that begin to wonder if you still have what it takes. This is what made his Spring Training batting of such importance. So far, he’s been much of the same. His current line is .200/.200/.300 with two more strikeouts than hits.
Phillies Know What Rojas Is Capable Of
The reason that this is disappointing is because of how great he was in his rookie campaign. He batted .302/.342/.430, with 14 steals, and 13 extra-base hits in just 59 games. Philadelphia thought they found something in Rojas but have been a little shocked at his recent play.
The team still has faith in him and will hopefully give him another opportunity at the start of the regular season to prove that he belongs in the majors. The problem is if he continues to put up poor numbers at the plate. Philadelphia would have to look for other solutions to their lineup if Rojas can’t break out of the slump.
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