Phillies Johan Rojas is an accident waiting to happen – in a good way

Johan Rojas can be a player who can infuriate both home and opposing fans for the same reasons.

If you’re a Phillies fan, you want to see more offensive work. It’s great that the guy can catch fly balls, which most center fielders can’t, but when he swings a bat, he just has to be better than the picture he seems to paint with the same color every at-bat.

Go to his Statcast page and you’ll see that he likes to paint his pictures in the same color – blue. And blue is not good. The more blue you have, the worse a hitter you are. Rojas performs incredibly poorly in the following categories:

• Average Exit Velocity – 84.7 MPH (bottom 3% in baseball)
• Hard Hit Percentage – 30% (bottom 10%)
• Barrel share – 2.9% (lower 7%)
• Persecution percentage – 34.9% (bottom 16%)
• Expected Weighted Base (xwOBA) – .269 (bottom 7%)
• Expected Slugging Percentage – .324 (bottom 7%)
• Walk percentage – 3.7% (bottom 4%)

The only things he paints in other colors in his batting profile are the gray hue of his whiff percentage (23.3%), which ranks in the middle of the pack in the sport (54th percentile), and the burst of red-orange evident in his strikeout percentage (17.4%), which ranks in baseball’s 76th percentile. All of this shows he’s not a good hitter at all, and yet, like the late, great Saturday morning painter Bob Ross, Rojas can still create great art, usually with a series of “happy accidents.”

And that’s what makes him so angry for opponents, because he causes so much havoc with his “oops” contact. Rojas has 47 hits this season. And 20 of them have been infield.

And forget about the mistakes he makes with his speed, which forces him to make throwing errors, like in the Phillies’ 8-6 win over the Braves on Friday night. He had two infield hits, the second of which gave the Phillies three runs when he forced an errant throw from Braves pitcher Jesse Chavez, who was trying to throw him out at first base, scoring two runs.

Then, in an attempt to steal third base, he forced a bad throw from Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud, allowing him to score another run:

Johan Rojas adds 3 more runs 😎 pic.twitter.com/GhrVpoIlife

— Phillies Nation (@PhilliesNation) July 6, 2024

It’s these types of plays that make him an impact player. Even his harshest critics (yours truly) have to admit it. The Phillies just want him to be more consistent. He can hit a .230 batting average. That’s not the problem. But his at-bats need to be more competitive. He gives up too many of them and gets taken out of the game more easily. He doesn’t work enough with the pitchers.

But the Phillies are convinced that he can be taught – that he will figure it out in time and that he will then be the best player they can put at the bottom of the lineup.

That’s because he has outstanding speed and is an excellent defender. Many great lineups have had guys like that who were a nuisance to opponents and created a lot of movement with speed and defense.

The question the Phillies have to ask themselves is if he can do it this year. He’s shown signs of being able to, but the consistency is just lacking.

If that were the case, the Phillies wouldn’t be looking for an outfield upgrade. But at least he creates enough chaos that he can play a better role for the Phillies than some of the other players who likely won’t have a place on this roster after July 31.

He almost made another big play – he attempted a safety squeeze play and managed a good bunt, but it was thwarted by a great defensive play by Braves first baseman Matt Olson, who caught the ball barehanded and threw it home to Whit Merrifield at the plate. But again, it was a ground ball where chaos could have ensued. It didn’t happen in this case, but it would later in the game.

Yes, there were other players who made headlines in the win that extended the Phillies’ lead over the Braves to 10 games in the NL East. Trea Turner hit two more home runs. Aaron Nola got off to another hot start for his 10th win of the season and the 100th of his career.

But it’s the little plays Rojas was involved in that made the difference between winning and losing. And no one else seems to be involved in those chaotic Phillies plays more often than their former center fielder – whether accidentally or not.