December 06, 2023
Johan Rojas was a boon for the Phillies defensively in the back half of last season and even held his own at the plate after a jump to the majors straight from Double-A ball.
But in the postseason, while the former still held true, past the Wild Card round for the latter, Rojas was increasingly overmatched as every passing at-bat grew greater.
Coming back for 2024, the 23-year old's bat would need to improve, which is why club president Dave Dombrowski wasn't in any particular rush to name him as the starting center fielder going forward.
But there is belief in Rojas, for sure.
Down at MLB's winter meetings in Nashville on Tuesday, Phillies manager Rob Thomson – having just had another year added to his contract – met with the media and talked a bit about what inspires his confidence in the promising outfielder's offense getting better.
"During the regular season, his at-bats were really good," Thomson said. "He hit over .300, but it wasn't just that, it was how he worked the count, how he used the field, and really, I know the numbers in the postseason, the numbers weren't very good, but if you look at the at-bats, they were better than the numbers.
"So I think this kid has some upside. Like Dave said yesterday, we're not gonna anoint him the center field spot. We'll see what happens in spring training, but I really like this kid."
Until then, Thomson said Rojas is forgoing winter ball to spend the offseason in the weight room getting stronger while charting through his hitting progression.
"He had a lot of at-bats this year, played in a lot of games," Thomson said. "We just felt like it was time to get back in the weight room, get back in the cage, get back to drill work, get his swing back."
And develop his eye at the plate too, which became a problem for him as October wore on.
"I think it's all about pitch selection," Thomson continued. "Not chasing and understanding what his strengths are and staying with those, attacking his strengths...We really want him to bring the strike zone back in over the plate and use the field. If he does that, he's gonna be good."
Thomson was asked if there would be any certain offensive threshold Rojas would have to hit coming back in the spring to stay up with the big-league club. He said there isn't any particular number or stat that he and the staff would be looking for. It's more about how Rojas approaches his at-bats.
And at the end of the day, if Rojas looks like he needs to take a step back and get reps in down at Triple-A, the Phillies won't be afraid to make that decision.
"A lot of it has to do with what's best for him," Thomson said. "What it looks like. Is he frustrated? Is he getting his in own way? Trying to do too much? Once he gets to that point, I think we have to do what's best for him."
Thomson has navigated the development of young outfielders before. Back in 2008, when he was the bench coach for Joe Girardi's staff with the Yankees, Brett Gardner had just been called up, and with an aging Johnny Damon in the lineup, established himself as New York's go-to in center field.
Defensively, Gardner was the better option, but he hit only .228 with a .582 OPS across 42 games. He came back ready to take on more for the next season, however, and went on to bat .270 with a much greater .724 OPS in 108 games for a Yankees team that was on the way to a world title. Gardner was just fine from there.
With Brandon Marsh, Cristian Pache, and Jake Cave available as other outfield options on the Phillies' roster (assuming the team doesn't add a player in free agency or via trade), Thomson acknowledged that the situation with Rojas now is a little more flexible than the one with Gardner in New York way back when, but that's probably far from the worst thing – both in the short- and long-term.
"I think in our case, we have other options with Marsh, and Pache, and Cave, so we want to do the best thing, the right thing for Johan," Thomson said. "If that is going to Triple-A and getting how many ever at-bats that he needs, then that's what we'll do."
In the event the call gets made to send Rojas down to Triple-A, Thomson added that Brandon Marsh would likely be the Phillies' everyday center fielder in the meantime, at least to start 2024.
Marsh is also a skilled outfielder, and did see improvement at the plate in 2023 over his full 2022 campaign, but there was a steep drop-off in his production against left-handed pitching (.229/.321/.396) compared to right (.292/.387/.477).
The 25-year old has been working with hitting coach Kevin Long to figure that imbalance out, Thomson said, and there's a lot of confidence that he will.
"I do believe he's gonna be able to hit left-handed pitching, "Thomson said. "That's one of the things that [Kevin Long] is really honed in on during spring training and prior to spring training because he's going around seeing all the guys. But yeah, I have full confidence in Marsh.
"We all think that he's gonna be able to do it."
*H/T Baseball Isn't Boring podcast for capturing audio
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