The veteran’s hand and wrist injury impacted his performance the last season.
With Gavin Lux out for the season after tearing his ACL, this leaves a gap in the Dodgers’ starting shortstop position. Lux was expected to play a big part in this role after Trea Turner departed from Los Angeles.
Following Lux’s injury, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has voiced some potential in-house options they can turn to, including Miguel Rojas. On Thursday during spring training, the media spoke to Roberts and asked him the ways in which Rojas is trying to work on his swing. The veteran has been working hard during the offseason to refine his swing and improve his approach at the plate.
Although Rojas struggled offensively last season, Roberts touched upon how it may have been a result of the hand and wrist injury he was battling the last half of the season:
“I think there’s some of that – the hand and wrist. I think there’s a little bit of understanding count leverage and using the lower half to move the baseball a little bit more. He has the bat to ball, always had it. He has a two-strike approach, that’s already kind of baked into who he is. But when you get count leverage you can take some shots. But I do believe that with the lack of the shift, the ball in play is going to benefit him a lot.”
On the topic of the shift restrictions, these will certainly work in Rojas’ favor and allow him to optimize offense. Although Rojas will benefit from this, he will still have areas to improve upon such as hitting. Looking at last season, his hard-hit percentage was down to 27.1%, which was his lowest percentage since 2018.
There is no doubt that Los Angeles will take a hit with the loss of Lux because he provided so much value on offense. In the shortstop’s absence, it will be on Rojas to become just as much of an impact player on offense as he is on defense.
