Josh Rojas has been the Mariners’ early-season MVP

The once footnote in the Paul Sewald deal has become the centerpiece

When the Mariners dealt closer Paul Sewald to the Diamondbacks at the 2023 trade deadline for a trio of players, most analysts saw outfielder Dominic Canzone as the centerpiece of the trade, with prospect Ryan Bliss close behind. Third baseman Josh Rojas was the “secret third thing” of the trade: at worst, a “throw-in”, and at best, a “change of scenery candidate.”

MLB expert Jeff Passan shared the view that Rojas was not the carrying piece of the trade. “I I think this trade hinges on Canzone and Bliss,” he told told Brock and Salk in analyzing the trade, pointing out that, at the time, Rojas hadn’t homered in any of his 200-plus plate appearances so far that season. “We have a decent sense of what Josh Rojas is already.”

At the time of the trade, Jerry Dipoto described Rojas as a “great bounceback candidate with defensive skills who can really run the bases and gives us a patient on-base presence in our lineup.” Rojas apparently did like the scenery in Seattle better; after posting a slash line of .228/.292/.296 with Arizona, he slashed .272/.321/.400 after moving up to the Northwest, including four home runs.

So far this season, he’s off to an even better start, slashing .297/.366/.516; he’s already up to three homers, which for those of you excellent at math, is 75% of last season’s total already in one month and change where he hasn’t even been an everyday starter. Last night, he provided a key base hit off the bench that broke up the Braves’ no-hitter.

Rojas leads the Mariners in almost every offensive category, including AVG, OBP, and SLG. But maybe what’s been most impactful about Rojas is what he’s brought to a team that’s scuffled with strikeouts and a lack of getting on base: from the nine-hole, Rojas has been able to turn the lineup over with walks and base hits; he currently has the lowest strikeout rate on a team that has baseball’s highest strikeout rate. Following the injury to shortstop J.P. Crawford, he’s moved into the leadoff spot against righties and so far has produced two home runs and a triple out of the top spot. Like Crawford, the player he’s taken the place of at the top of the lineup, Rojas has been the team’s early-season MVP, much as Crawford was for a Seattle lineup that suffered through the same plate discipline issues last year.

For Rojas, this upward arc since the trade has only continued work he began in Arizona, but has accelerated the more comfort he’s gained in Seattle, both mentally and physically:

“I got a little more comfortable here. I got all my mechanics under control, and when I can get that under control, I can be fully committed to my plan, which is where I’ve been the past couple weeks.”

What Rojas means by getting his mechanics “under control” is a feeling like he’s cleaned up his entire body, a process that started when he was traded to Seattle after playing through some minor injuries in Arizona and developing some poor mechanical habits as compensation. Rojas came to Seattle having fought through a laundry list of issues, none of which were serious enough to require an IL stint but which were, in combination, enough to drain him both physically—and, more importantly, mentally, robbing him of his consistency and ability to prepare.

“I had some hip issues, some lower back stuff, some shoulders that were aching...so yeah, I was in a tough spot. And from there you’re just constantly battling, you know, every day you come to the ballpark there’s no time to focus on the game plan, it’s just, how am I going to get my body ready to play? What swing am I going to show up to the field with today? So that was the main focus, whereas when you’re healthy and you’re feeling good, you can focus on, what is my plan today, who am I facing.”

“You’re just up there scrambling, which you can get away with at some level, but not at this level.”

In addition to committing to a swing change begun in Arizona designed to give him more loft, post-trade Rojas immediately began working with the training staff here on some new drills to get his body in a better spot, Rojas felt an immediate improvement that built over the course of the remainder of the season and throughout the off-season, and he’s carried those improvements forward into this season. It’s made an impression on his new skipper.

“Josh has had really good at-bats,” said Servais. “He’s been really consistent. He’s got a way of finding a way to get on base, using the whole fielld to hit, and he’s not up there trying to hit home runs, even though he has hit a couple this year. He’s just trying to figure out a way to create some havoc, make it tough on the pitcher.”

In addition to gaining comfort at the plate, Rojas has also gained comfort in the clubhouse with a new team—his third, after being drafted by Houston before being traded in the Zach Greinke trade in 2019 (Rojas was, once again, not the headliner in that deal, which included RHP Corbin Martin, RHP J.B. Bukauskas, LF Seth Beer, and Rojas). After an off-season spent in his home state of Arizona around the team complex into spring training, he’s found buddies to shoot pool with in the clubhouse and chat with pregame.

“His personality has started to come out more,” Servais said. “He’s a talker. And if you’ve been around our team, we’re a relatively quiet team, we don’t have a lot of big talkers. But Josh is one that will mix it up in the dugout, talk a lot of [expletive], whatever you want to call it, throughout the course of the game.”

Rojas’s feisty personality might come from now having been traded twice, each time as an afterthought.

“I kind of like that spot, that little underdog role,” he said, smiling. “I was in the same spot when I got traded in the Greinke trade. There was a lot of top prospects in that trade, and I was kind of the lower guy on the totem pole, and I felt like I did well in Arizona after I was traded there. And you know, same deal here, thrown into a trade.

My only goal is to come over here and be on the winning side of the trade. That’s my goal, to make the front office, whoever traded for me, make them right.”

Maybe baseball does, as Passan says, have a “decent sense” of who Josh Rojas is. But it seems like Rojas himself is just coming into an understanding of himself that may not match the industry perception. Most importantly, whatever that vision is, it’s working for Rojas.

“He has figured out what works for him and what allows him to be the best version of himself,” said Servais. “He’s a really good baseball player. His baseball IQ is extremely high. He’s been awesome for us.”