Johan Rojas Made One Hell Of An Impact In His Major League Debut
If you're new around here, the ball is going to find you. The baseball gods are nothing if not consistent. Honestly, I've never heard of this kid. Y'all know I love Major League Baseball, but I'd be lying if I told you I pay a lot of attention to the Phillies farm system. So I don't know if this kid is here to stay, but I do know that there is something so cool about guys who make an impact in their major league debut. In the grand scheme of things, a Major League debut is the smallest sample size possible, but if you do something cool right away, the fans will run with the possibility that your team may have stumbled upon something special. A great first game/week can carry you a long way. I have experience with this. Akil Baddoo has a 77 OPS+ over the last two years, and I still have Tigers fans in my mentions who claim he'll be a future All-Star because he had a great first week.
I did some research (thank you, Baseball Reference) and looked into Johan Rojas. He is a legitimate prospect. The Phillies aren't known for having some dynamite farm system, but they have three prospects in the Top 100. Rojas isn't in the top 100, but he did enter today as the number six prospect in the Phillies Organization. He's 22 years old, but I was surprised when I saw that he was called up without having a single at-bat in Triple-A. It's pretty rare to see a guy skip an entire level before getting called up to the bigs, but Rojas is an exception. His numbers in double-A were rock solid. He reached base at a .361 clip and put up a .854 OPS. While going from double-A to the Major Leagues is a tall order, you have to go with the hot hand. Rojas clearly found something in the minors this year, considering his OPS shot up almost 200 points compared to last season.
Do you know who is drooling over Johan Rojas' success? Dave Dombrowski. That man is a trade deadline wizard, and you know he's going to make some moves with the Phillies being in contention once again. Dombrowski is the most fun person to have as the head of your baseball organization because he only cares about winning at the big league level. He will gut your farm system like a fish if it means getting the Major League ball club closer to World Series contention. He doesn't think a whole lot about the long-term plan. He's thinking about the now because he's ruthless. By all accounts, Rojas has the makeup of a pretty good player, but if he doesn't show it right away, he'll be shipped at the deadline in a deal for Paul Goldschmidt or something. That's the Dombrowski way, and god bless him for it. Good on Rojas for making an impact in his big league debut. That was one hell of a double play.
