Marlins captain Miguel Rojas on pandemic, playoffs and monkey masks as MLB returns | Opinion
Miguel Rojas has earned “face of the Marlins” status as far as players go. He is the starting shortstop, team captain, clubhouse leader, fan favorite and player rep to the MLBPA. He’s been in Miami the longest, since 2015, surviving the roster teardown to be a part of the work-in-progress rebuild as a veteran at age 31.
Now Rojas helps a young team navigate the great unknown, the return of baseball amid a coronavirus/COVID-19 threat that finds his team, his team, at the epicenter of one of the pandemic’s worst hot spots.
So, naturally, when speaking with Rojas, you must get to the obvious serious question first:
Will the postgame monkey be back?
We’re looking for signs of normalcy here, ports in a storm, and for the Marlins one of them the past few years has been Rojas, in a rubber monkey mask, sneaking up with a whipped-cream pie to the face of the game’s hero after a win as the teammate is being interviewed on TV.
That was before wearing a mask took on a whole new meaning in 2020.
Alas, everything has changed. Players aren’t even supposed to shake hands or fist-bump now. Or spit. So pies to the face are on indefinite hold.
“I think it’s gonna have to be on a Zoom call now,” Rojas joked this week — on a Zoom call with us, as a matter of fact. “Maybe I’ll create a YouTube channel or something like that? This is the new normal. We have to be responsible. It was fun, the monkey thing, but we have to move forward from that.”
Unless the whole restart plan collapses, the Marlins will open the season next week with a three-game series at Philadelphia starting July 24. Opening Day at home is to be July 27 at Marlins Park vs. Baltimore. Stadiums will be empty. No fans allowed at least for the foreseeable future.
This is when the return of sports will begin in earnest, if not as usual.
Expansion soccer team Inter Miami already has played two games in the MLS Is Back tournament in Orlando, but the Marlins will be the first of our established teams to resume, and the first to play a game in Miami. (The Heat and Panthers both will resume their seasons on Aug. 1, the Heat in the NBA’s Orlando bubble and the Cats in the NHL’s Toronto hub.)
MLB’s abbreviated 60-game season will be a wild-card that analysts say gives young, under-radar teams like the Marlins a better chance than they might have over the grind of 162 games.
Rojas, Miggy or Miggy Ro to his teammates, agrees.
The short season and the club’s emerging talent combine to stoke his excitement. He recalls the Marlins once being 31-14 over a 45-game stretch. Last season they had a 13-5 spurt. They were 12-6 in spring training this year (remember?) before the pandemic halted everything.
“Whoever gets hot, we can be that team. Why not us? That’s a real thing,” Rojas said. “Why not us to get get hot and get on a roll? Our offense is going to be so much better than in the past years. I feel very, very good about our pitching staff. We could be in the playoffs. I’m not ruling the Marlins out — at all.”
When Rojas joined Miami in ‘15 his teammates included Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Fernandez, Dee Gordon, Marcell Ozuna, J.T. Realmuto and Christian Yelich, all gone now.
Today, Rojas looks to rising young talent, top prospects that arrived in the trades. He mention first baseman Lewin Diaz; outfielders Jesus Sanchez, Monte Harrison and JJ Bleday; his own likely heir in shortstop Jazz Chisholm; and pitcher Nick Neidert.
He likens Miami’s rebuild blueprint to the recent turnarounds of the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros. He also mentions added veterans like Jesus Aguilar, Jonathan Vilar and Corey Dickerson. Aguilar hit 35 home runs for Milwaukee in 2018, and once hit 25 in a 60-game winter league season.
We’re talking baseball here. Like everything was normal. When nothing is.
The delayed, shortened season amid an ongoing pandemic overshadows everything, of course. It begins after a controversial buildup, by decree of commissioner Rob Manfred after MLB and the players union could not agree on much of anything. And it begins with baseball players seemingly at greater risk than other sports’ athletes because baseball is traveling from city to city, not ensconced in a bubble in one city.
“We are preparing. We’re not planning on backing down,” Rojas said. “We are trying to be responsible, trying to be accountable. Following the protocols. We’re not going to put ourselves or our families at risk. If we’re not feeling comfortable to be here, we would not be here.”
In these circumstances the burden on being a team captain is magnified.
“This year we’re going to have to do some kind of things to keep the team together,” he said, “because we’re not going to be able to hang out so much together or go to dinner.”
Previous seasons, Rojas’ wife and now 4-year-old son would accompany him on many road trips. Not now.
“I’m sleeping in a different room right now, trying to not put them at any risk,” he said. “This is going to be a sacrifice on all of us. It’s not just me or my baseball season or career. It’s me and 59 other guys [in the team’s 60-player pool] who love their families.”
As sports fans, as Americans, we imagine getting back to normal again someday, and enjoying all of the simple pleasures we took for granted..
Stadiums and arenas, full of cheering fans.
Fist bumps, high five and hugs.
And Miguel Rojas, in a monkey mask, with a pie in his hand.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:34 PM.
