The Phillies believe Johan Rojas can be ‘electric’ as a hitter. But there’s still plenty of work ahead.
Rojas is not there yet. The 23-year-old batted .170 this spring, but he made the opening-day roster mostly due to his elite defense in center field. His stat line wasn’t the only thing the Phillies were taking into consideration. They looked closely at his live at-bats, his decision-making, and his cage work throughout camp. And in those areas, Rojas and Long saw progress.
“You want to see deep at-bats,” Long said in mid-March. “You want to see him battling. Where he’s not ending at-bats real quick. There was a game the other day, probably a week ago, where he took a couple swings. He was coming in so steep with his hands, and he’s fouling balls off and they were catching them ...
There is still much to prove, but Long believes that this spring will help guide Rojas in the right direction. “Just trying to get him to feel what he wants to feel, because he’s going to be good for us. That’s what I appreciate about Rojas. He’s so young, and there’s a little bit of a language barrier there, but he wants to learn and wants to talk hitting and he watches guys hit a lot. And you don’t really see that with young kids, especially big prospects.”