Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas becomes reporter Miguel Rojas at Super Bowl Opening Night
Miguel Rojas the Miami Marlins shortstop turned into Miguel Rojas the reporter on Monday night.
As the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers came into his park, Marlins Park, for Super Bowl 54’s Opening Night, Rojas and teammates Lewis Brinson and Garrett Cooper were on the field they play on for 81 games a season to take part in the festivities.
Rojas, wearing a royal blue sports coat, joined the droves of reporters in the scrums and asked questions to some of the Chiefs’ biggest faces.
Rojas asked Chiefs head coach Andy Reid what he hopes to experience in Miami and where he got his floral shirt (It wasn’t Tommy Bahamas). “I wanted to know if he was going to try coladas or something like that,” Rojas said.
He fought his way to the front of a scrum to ask Patrick Mahomes, a former baseball player, who the quarterback would rather have on the mound in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the world series: Himself or his dad?
Mahomes’ answer: His dad if his team was pitching, him if it came down to production at the plate.
“I feel like the respect that I have for media is always going to be there,” Rojas said, “but now that I’ve experienced this and know how hard it is for [the media] to put yourself in that position to get a good answer from players, it’s hard work. I respect that. What I’m going to do from now on is I’m going to tell everybody from now on to be nice with media.”
Rojas, a Venezuela native, started following the NFL about four years thanks to fantasy football. It gave him something to focus on in the offseason outside of baseball and gave him a chance to bond with his teammates.
He had two players in Marlins Park on his roster this season: 49ers tight end George Kittle and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. He also follows players from both teams on social media.
“I really like it,” Rojas said. “It keeps me entertained. ... I’m happy to start seeing these players right here. They’re really good human beings.”
But for Rojas, baseball is still his focus. He signed a two-year contract extension with the Marlins at the end of the 2019 season. Feb. 17, the Marlins’ first full-squad workout for spring training, is the date he has circled.
And with the Marlins making moves this offseason — the team has added versatile infielder Jonathan Villar, first baseman Jesus Aguilar, outfielders Corey Dickerson and Matt Joyce, and relievers Yimi Garcia, Sterling Sharp and Brandon Kintzler — Rojas is optimistic the team will start turning the corner as it heads into Year 3 of its rebuild under the Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter ownership group.
“Excited to see the guys and how they got better on their own,” Rojas said. “That’s something that I’m really excited about. All these pieces that we’re getting ... all these guys are really good additions. Like I said before, when I signed this contract, I was all in on this project. They’re showing that we’re through the worst and we’re moving forward to have a better team and better competition.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 8:49 PM.
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