Phillies working to make bunting a big part of Johan Rojas’ game once again

CLEARWATER, Fla. — At about 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Johan Rojas and Aramis Garcia met Florida Complex League Phillies manager Shawn Williams near the half field at the Phillies’ spring training complex. Williams has been working with a few players on bunting drills. The drills don’t last long — maybe 10-15 minutes per day — but Williams tries to challenge them.

On Tuesday, he fed Rojas and Garcia only fastballs, but he’ll soon start showing them a variety of pitches. He talks through different situations — depending on infield positioning — and which bunt should be used when. It’s been a helpful refresher for everyone, since this wasn’t an area where the Phillies excelled last season, but especially Rojas, who had just three bunt hits in 149 at-bats in 2023.

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Williams was Rojas’ manager at double-A Reading in 2022. He said that back then, bunting was a big part of the center fielder’s game, which made sense, given his speed. But Rojas got away from it at the major league level, and didn’t look comfortable in the moments when he did try to bunt.

The Phillies are hopeful that Rojas’ daily reps will change that.

“[He needs] to just do it,” Williams said. “Because I know in the past, in the minor leagues, he’s gotten many bunt hits. So to continue that — it’s not just getting the bunt hits, it’s moving runners over and sacrificing. It just helps his whole game.

“I love bunting. But it’s one of those things that you have do it every day, and the more you do it every day, you’ll get such good feel for it, to where he’ll be able to bunt it where he wants to. He’ll be able to go out there and be like, ‘OK, this is what they’re doing to me.’ Maybe the first baseman is playing there, so I can put a bunt down right here, down the first base line, and beat it out.”

“He knows it’s a big part of his game,” Williams added.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson emphasized that Rojas isn’t the only player who is refining this part of his game.

“We’re doing it with a lot of guys, too,” Thomson said. “Because there were, I felt like, a lot of situations last year where we asked guys to bunt and we couldn’t get a sacrifice down. We couldn’t get a base hit bunt down to move a runner from second to third with nobody out. So, we’re doing a lot of that with a lot of different guys.”

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He believes Rojas’ jump from double A to the major leagues last season could have been a contributing factor.

“You’ve just got to slow it down, you know?” Thomson said. “When guys get in trouble, I think they try to run out of the box before they get the baseball down. Their angle changes, the ball moves on them, because their head is moving. It’s like hitting — you want to stay back, you want to stay calm, see the ball down and then you use your speed. Once we get him to slow down, he’ll be fine.”

Pitching prospect Andrew Painter, who underwent Tommy John elbow surgery in July, has been out and about at the Phillies’ spring training complex. He is still on track in his rehab. He’s playing catch, and has been doing so for about a month. He’s still a ways from throwing off a mound.

“He’s playing catch, I think a couple of times a week,” Thomson said of Painter. “I’m not sure what the distance is. But he is out there moving his arm around.”