Miguel Rojas continued to be a solid bench option and a leader in the Dodgers’ clubhouse during the 2025 regular season, and when his name was called on in the World Series, he became a part of some of the biggest plays in franchise history.
Rojas was coming off his best full season statistically in 2024, where he set career highs in slugging percentage, OPS and wRC+ for a full season while registering the highest fWAR of his career. The Dodgers decided to exercise Rojas’ $5 million club option for the 2025 season, keeping around one of the driving forces within the clubhouse.
Rojas showed his humility and deep admiration for the Dodgers when the team signed Roki Sasaki, as he passed his jersey no. 11 down to Sasaki and opted to once again wear his no. 72 that he donned during his rookie season in 2014. In exchange for the jersey number, Sasaki gifted Rojas a bottle of sake.
“The number 11 means something to me and to this organization, and I want him to know that before me, there was another guy [Manny Mota] that was pretty popular in L.A.” Rojas said to Sasaki. “Those guys are important in our culture, and hopefully we can actually continue to do this.”
Rojas began the season getting occasional starts in the middle infield, notably filling in at shortstop while Mookie Betts was fighting a stomach bug during the Tokyo Series. It was a sluggish start for Rojas, as over his first 17 games of the season in March and April, he slashed .273/.289/.318 with just two doubles and two RBI. As Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández both suffered injuries in May, both Rojas and Hyeseong Kim were called upon to fill in at second base. In 10 games during Edman’s absence, Rojas slashed a more respectable .250/.280/.417 slash line while also connecting for his first home run of the season.
Once Edman made his return to the lineup on May 18, Rojas began to struggle again, and by June 10, he had a season slash line of just .207/.240/.272 with just a single home run and five RBI. Things began to turn around while the Dodgers made their first visit to San Diego, and he began to split time at third base with Edman and Kiké Hernández when Max Muncy suffered a bone bruise to his left knee on July 2. From June 10 until the end of the first half, Rojas was arguably the Dodgers’ best hitter, as he slashed .364/.429/.763 with four home runs and eight RBI, striking out as many times as he walked over 16 games. He raised his season average from .207 to .254 and his OPS from .511 to .712. He maintained a level of consistency throughout the entire second half relative to how his overall stats looked at the end of the first half, although he went exactly two months without hitting a home run.
When the postseason came around, Rojas was in the starting lineup for both games of the Wild Card series against the Cincinnati Reds, with his lone impact coming via an RBI single in the series clinching Game 2. He was in the lineup for the first three games of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, and although he wasn’t much of a factor offensively, he made a head first diving play to tag the third base bag and beat the speedy Trea Turner to keep the game scoreless through six full innings in Game 2.
Rojas did not appear in the series clinching Game 4 nor any of the four games in the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, not stepping on the field until coming in as a defensive replacement in the 13th inning of Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers decided to start Rojas for the final two games of the World Series, sliding Tommy Edman in center field as Andy Pages mired in a horrible playoff drought. Rojas was at the receiving end of a game-ending double play to force Game 7, and in the top of the ninth inning with one out on a full count pitch from Jeff Hoffman, Rojas had the swing of his life. It is a moment that will live on as one of the greatest swings in Dodgers history.
Not only did Rojas tie the game in the top of the ninth inning, he fielded a ground ball from Dalton Varsho with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. Although the momentum of the ball pushed him back by a step, he managed to make an accurate throw to Will Smith to narrowly beat Isiah Kiner-Falefa by inches for a huge second out. Without Rojas in the fold, there is no certainty that the Dodgers would have repeated as champions.
Stats: .262/.318/.397, 7 HR, 27 RBI, 18 2B, 5 SB, 35 R, 24 BB, 46 K, 100 wRC+, 2.1 rWAR, 1.7 fWAR
Postseason: .278/.316/.444, 1 HR, 2 RBI
The answer is pretty obvious, that being Game 7 of the World Series. Rojas tied the game with a solo home run in the ninth inning and prevented the Blue Jays from winning the series on a walk-off with his throw home in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Miguel Rojas is back with the Dodgers after signing a one-year deal for the 2026 season, which will be his last. He will earn $5.5 million.