‘Miggy wants to be here’: How Miguel Rojas became the Miami Marlins’ undisputed leader
The 2018 season had just come to an end. The Miami Marlins had just gone 63-98 in the first year of their latest rebuild, this one under the eyes of the Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter ownership group. Most of the team’s big names were shipped off at the start of the season. Another will be gone before spring training arrives.
Meanwhile, Miguel Rojas is meeting with manager Don Mattingly and president of baseball operations Michael Hill.
Rojas had just finished his best big-league season to date, slugging 11 home runs, recording 53 RBI and scoring 44 runs while playing solid defense around the infield albeit without a defined position. He was leaning on veterans such as Martin Prado as he’s slowly began to shed that backup role from his resume and inch toward becoming an everyday starting shortstop.
The Marlins saw promise in Rojas.
Rojas saw promise in the ownership group’s long-term goal.
The making of a rising in-house leader was starting to take place.
“They gave me the confidence of ‘if we want to go somewhere, we want you to be out front and leading these guys,’” Rojas reminisced last week. “’We want you leading the right way, and playing the game the right way.’”
Fast forward two years, and look where Rojas is now. He’s the undisputed leader for a Marlins team finally reaping the first round of rewards of the rebuild.
Miami, in this truncated 2020 season, posted a winning record for the first time since 2009, clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2003 and advanced to the National League Division Series before being swept in three games by the Atlanta Braves.
And the Marlins will continue looking to Rojas as they move forward and try to make reaching the playoffs an annual occurrence.
“He’s taken on a leadership role in the clubhouse. He’s taken on a leadership role in the community, in the media,” Jeter said of Rojas, who signed a two-year contract extension last season. “Since we took over three years ago, I’ve had plenty of conversations with Miggy. He’s been very vocal about the fact he wanted to be with this organization because he trusted what we were going to do and what we are doing. When you have players like that, who are your best players, believing what you’re going to do, it goes a long way in that clubhouse.
“Miggy wants to be here.”
And Rojas has been front and center through it all.
He serves as the Marlins’ representative for the MLB Players Association and was their point person as heated negotiations took place with the league about how to play the season under the coronavirus pandemic.
He created a group chat that players used daily to stay up to date on developments on and off the field.
And he produced on the field, hitting .304 with four home runs, 10 doubles, 20 RBI and 20 runs scored over 40 games.
“I just want to be that guy, that leader by example and the guy they feel comfortable around,” Rojas said. “I want everybody who steps in this clubhouse to feel comfortable and to be themselves. If you’re a good guy and they feel comfortable around you, you’ll probably do good things on the field.”
He made his presence felt even when he couldn’t be directly with the team. Rojas was one of 18 players who tested positive for COVID-19 after the first weekend of the 60-game season. He experienced mild symptoms from the virus including fever, sore throat and headaches. He was away from the team for three weeks, quarantined at first before needing about a week at the team’s alternate training site in Jupiter to get built back up to play in games.
“That was one of the hardest things I had to do in my career,” Rojas said, “to sit down for three weeks and keep my mind in baseball shape and keep my body in a good physique to be able to come back and play baseball again after that.”
In that time, Rojas went from starting shortstop to the team’s No. 1 fan. He live tweeted games and sent messages of encouragement through the group chat.
“One of the best leaders I’ve seen and played with, Miggy Rojas,” outfielder and 13-year MLB veteran Matt Joyce said. “He has been incredible to lead these guys and this team every day. Talking to us. Communicating.”
That’s fitting, considering communication from the new ownership group was a key part of Rojas buying in to what Jeter and Co. was selling. Rojas said Jeter was up front about what was about to unfold. The minor-league system needed an overhaul. The organization needed depth. It also needed in-house players to step up and become stewards in the clubhouse.
“I knew the direction of the team was going in the right path,” Rojas said. “I knew everything they did was with a purpose and a plan.”
The plan started to show results this year, even with the early playoff exit. The first milestone has been accomplished. The ultimate goal, however, is still out there.
“It’s going to take some time to see everything that will happen,” Rojas said, “but at this moment, I’m not upset. I’m just happy for the group of guys that we have and everything that we did.”
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