Diamondbacks 2022 Season Player Reviews: Josh Rojas
2022 Status: Final Pre-Arb season, $730,900
Note: WAR is the average of Baseball Reference and Fangraphs WAR
2022 Diamondbacks Season Reviews
Season Review
Arizona native and Goodyear High School alumni Josh Rojas was drafted by the Houston Astros in 2017 while attending University of Hawaii. His first couple of seasons in that organization were solid but unremarkable. Then he had a breakout year in 2019, batting .322 with 23 homers and a 1.023 OPS. He was included in the deal that sent Zack Greinke to the Astros on July 31st 2019 and made his major league debut with the Diamondbacks on August 12th of that year.
Rojas struggled to hit in his first two stints in the majors in 2019 and 2020, combining for just a .206 average in 227 PA. But in 2021 he was able to establish himself as an everyday utility player, moving around the diamond to play five difference positions, thus getting into 139 games. He struggled in his innings at shortstop but held his own at second, third, and on the outfield corners. Most importantly, he started to hit, batting .264 with a .759 OPS, good for a 103 OPS+ or 3% better than league average.
He entered spring training 2022 as the favorite to win the everyday third base job. An oblique injury sidelined him late in spring however and he missed the first month of the year, making his season debut on May 6th. Through his first 13 gams he was hitting an indifferent .250 without an extra base hit. That would change on a windy day in Chicago however, when he smashed three homers in one game.
While Rojas would hit only six more homers the rest of the year that game kick started a solid and mostly consistent season. He spent the rest of the year getting on base more than anyone else on the team and wreaking havoc once he got there. Not only did his .349 OBP lead the team, but he tied with Jake McCarthy for the team lead in stolen bases nabbing 23 bags while getting caught just three times. Rojas' +5 base running runs above average were tied along with teammate Geraldo Perdomo for the second most in MLB.
Rojas hit .295 with runners in scoring position, and .302 with two outs and runners in scoring position. He held his own against left hand pitching, batting .243. For his career Rojas has pretty even platoon splits.
| Split | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
VS. RHP | 945 | .254 | .334 | .382 | .716 |
VS. LHP | 342 | .261 | .342 | .368 | .710 |
It all added up to 3.2 oWAR, or offensive WAR, which tied with Christian Walker for the team lead the team in 2022. That is a WAR metric from baseball reference that is a catchall for offensive contribution. It includes positional adjustment, but does not take into account the fielding runs of the player.
The only real negative on the offensive side of things was he once again slumped somewhat in September/October. That has been a consistent issue for him in his career. Even over his last two seasons in which he's established himself as a bonafide major leaguer his triple slash for the final month of the year is just .240/.315/.324, .639 OPS. This could be reflective of his all out style of play. Rojas always hustles and gives his all on every play. He is a max effort player, squeezing every bit of performance out of his body that he can.
Defense
Rojas had a mixed season on defense in 2022. He played 741 innings at third base and 230 innings at second base, most of which came after the trade for Emmanuel Rivera. According to defensive runs saved at Baseball Reference Rojas had just -1 runs at third base +0 for second base. But Statcast rated him as -4 runs at third base and +1 runs at second. Rojas main issue at third base however was errors, that seemed to come bunches. His .946 fielding percentage at third base ranked 26th in MLB. Of his 13 errors, 8 were throwing errors.
He made seven errors in a span of 20 games between July 10th and August 5th. That included a two error game on July 10th that helped lead to a loss against the Rockies. He also had a two error game while playing third base on September 20th, in which he made an error in a five run Dodger 8th inning, contributing to a loss there as well.
That game lead to a three day benching from manager Torey Lovullo to give Josh time to put in some extra work on defense. He played four more games at third base and finished out the year with five games at second base filling in for Ketel Marte who went on the IL with an unspecified injury.
2023 Outlook
Rojas will be arbitration eligible for the first time on 2023 and it's estimated he'll receive a salary of approximately $2,400,000.
After the season was over, as is often the case, Rojas was the only one available to speak to the media. After lavishing praise on the other exciting young players to come up and talking about his role in trying to help them with the adjustment to the major leagues, the team's Roberto Clemente award nominee spoke about being local and what that means to him.
"There is a lot of pride I take in being from Arizona, being able to play for a local high school, a local middle school, playing travel ball in the area. Alot of pride for sure trying to show the young guys coming up in this state that it's possible [to reach the majors] if you just keep your head down and grind."
Rojas emphasized the work he will be doing in the off season on defense:
I've got a lot of things that I want to work on, that I HAVE to work on this offseason when it comes to the defensive side of the baseball.
Discussing the elimination of the shift next year Rojas emphasized the need for more athleticism and playing with "feel" as opposed to just being placed where hitters will normally hit the ball. He also said that the team did not specify if he would play mostly third base or second base in 2023, only that he should focus his off season work "in the dirt".
You can listen to Rojas' full year end interview here:
