Johan Rojas' PED Situation Affects Phillies in Several Important Ways

Johan Rojas was supposed to be part of a stacked Dominican Republic team in the World Baseball Classic, but as two handfuls of his Phillies teammates departed over the last few days to join their World Baseball Classic clubs, Rojas did not.

The Phillies' 25-year-old centerfielder tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, which makes him ineligible to play in the WBC. The news was first reported by Wilber Sanchez on Monday morning. The Athletic reports that Rojas is appealing.

From a Phillies perspective, it means Rojas will be suspended for 80 games and unable to play in the postseason, if the ban is upheld on appeal. He continues to work out at the Phillies' spring training complex and appeared in a Grapefruit League game as recently as Sunday against the Yankees.

The Phillies fallout

This changes a few things for the Phillies and may put them in the market for a right-handed-hitting centerfielder.

For one, it reduces the Phillies' bench battle from three perceived candidates to two. Now, it's strictly between utilityman Dylan Moore and corner outfielder Bryan De La Cruz. Moore can play seven positions whenever needed: shortstop, third base, all three outfield spots, second and first.

The Phillies seem to value Moore's versatility for their final bench spot, but center field is the position where he has his least experience, just 12 starts and 105 innings across seven big-league seasons. De La Cruz has more big-league time in center field (61 starts), but most of that came in 2021 and '22 and he hasn't played the position since August 2023.

Thin in center

Even if Rojas was not a true competitor for an Opening Day bench job, he was an important right-handed option in case of injury or underperformance by the lefties against lefties.

Excluding starting centerfielder Justin Crawford and leftfielder Brandon Marsh, the player on the Phillies' 40-man roster with the most experience in center is 27-year-old Pedro Leon, who played 1,757 innings there in the Houston Astros' minor-league system.

A right-handed hitter, the suddenly important Leon is 4-for-14 with a double, two RBI and two walks in seven spring games with the Phils. They claimed him off waivers from the Orioles in late November, two weeks after the Orioles claimed him from the Astros.

Other Phillies minor-leaguers capable of playing center are farther away. Dante Nori, their 2024 first-round pick, has started 110 games in center in the minors but has only a handful of games at Double A. He's at least a couple of years away from contributing in the majors.

Cade Fergus, 25, has over 1,000 minor-league innings in the Phillies' system at center field but has hit just .199 in 285 games.

External options

In free agency, the center field market was not flush to begin with, and at this point, the only notable name is 10-year veteran Manuel Margot, who would probably be attainable on a minor-league deal.

The Phillies could also explore the trade market for a reserve centerfielder, perhaps someone like Jose Siri, who is on a minor-league deal with the Angels and may not make that team out of camp.

The key would seem to be needing a right-handed bat at the position because the Phillies have two left-handed options in Crawford and Marsh.

Rojas, who has looked like he was chiseled out of granite since the day he was promoted to the majors in 2023, is the third Phillies major-leaguer to test positive for PEDs in less than a calendar year. Jose Alvarado missed 80 games last season from mid-may through mid-August after a positive test for exogenous testosterone, and outfielder Max Kepler was handed a suspension in early January for testing positive for Epitrenbolone.

Alvarado is also out of the World Baseball Classic, where he planned to pitch for Team Venezuela, because he did not pass the insurance protocol. He received his bad news around the same time as Mike Trout, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa.