How Johan Rojas is preparing to be the Phillies regular center fielder in 2024

Every offseason, Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long waits for his players to let him know when they’re ready to work again. He doesn’t expect to hear from them right away, but this year, one player reached out much earlier than the others.

It was Johan Rojas. Around the end of November, the 23-year-old center fielder called Long, and they began creating an offseason plan. Rojas’ eagerness was understandable. He made his debut in July, and held his own at the plate in the regular season — batting .302 across 149 at-bats — but struggled in the playoffs.

In 43 postseason at-bats, Rojas hit .093 with a .114 on-base percentage and .163 slugging percentage. He struck out and hit the ball on the ground more than he did in the regular season, but he also chased more than anyone on his team. Rojas swung at 43.5% of pitches out of the zone in the playoffs — a bump from his regular-season chase rate of 40.4%, which was high to begin with (the MLB average is 28.5%).

Lowering chase rates will be a team-wide focus for the Phillies this offseason, but for Rojas, the stakes are higher. He has proven that he can change a game with his defense, but the Phillies won’t hand him a spot on the active roster for that alone. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in October that Rojas would have to show that he’s able to contribute offensively to stay on the big-league club.

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So, with that in mind, Rojas decided to attack his challenge head-on. He has been working with Manny Amador, the Phillies’ DR Coordinator, in the Dominican Republic, and taking live batting practice about two to three times a week. Long says that Rojas is the only player on the active roster who is seeing live pitching right now.

“He’s probably taking the most swings of anybody we have up to this point,” he said. “Some guys haven’t even gotten started.”

Rojas has incorporated some subtle adjustments to his positioning that Long believes will help him make better decisions at the plate. When he was called up in July, most of Rojas’ work was centered around finding a shorter route to the ball, which is still a priority for him. But Long would also like to see the center fielder quiet down some of the movements that might be preventing him from making good swing decisions.

“He’s really hard on his front side,” Long said. “He doesn’t really hold his body position well, and he goes hard forward. So, we really quieted down his load. Everything he does. Until he attacks, he should stay stacked more. You should see less head movement.

“He’s also a little bit wider. He’s staying into his legs better. He’s not jumping at the ball. And his bat path has changed, because when he was going so hard forward, he attacked the ball very steep, which was like pounding it down. Now, it’s flatter. He’s staying in the zone a lot longer.”

The quieting down of movements is not dissimilar from the changes Long made for Brandon Marsh when he was acquired by the Phillies at the trade deadline in 2022. The idea is to allow more time for the hitter to see the ball. So far, Rojas has shown promise. Long has FaceTimed his pupil so he can watch him work, and said even over the phone, he’s noticed that Rojas is making better choices.

“I think in his last live BP, he had one swing and miss,” Long said. “They’re throwing him everything, and they’re not telling him what pitches are coming. They’re throwing sliders, changeups, curveballs, fastballs. Granted, it’s not the velocity that we might want to see right now, but it’s still 90-92 mph, which is plenty.

“You see him making good decisions. You see the takes, especially on balls where he’s quiet — you can tell that he’s seeing the ball. He’s not just in swing mode. He’s actually seeing the ball first, getting himself in a good position, and attacking and staying connected about as well as I’ve seen from him. So, there are a lot of good signs right now. Not many chases, not many bad swings. He’s not off-balance. His movements are concise.”

The true test will come in spring training and the regular season, when Rojas sees major league caliber pitching. But for now, the Phillies are pleased with the direction he is trending in.

“I think he’s moving and progressing about as well as I could ask for right now,” Long said. “In order for us to become a championship team, he’s going to need to do better in the playoffs. He knows that. That’s why he’s working so hard.”