Cubs No. 5 prospect Jefferson Rojas’ swing turning heads in major-league camp — ‘Wow’
PHOENIX — About 20 minutes earlier than Cubs prospect Jefferson Rojas was set to face right-hander Cade Horton in stay batting follow early this spring, the NL Rookie of the Year runner-up had a request: “Hey, go easy on me.”
Rojas did not precisely oblige.
On a backfield on the Cubs’ Mesa advanced, with a gaggle of followers, coaches and gamers wanting on, Rojas launched a house run off Horton.
“I told you!” one among Rojas’ minor-league teammates stated to a different as they handed.
Horton grinned on the point out of the encounter weeks later. He estimated that he is confronted Rojas seven occasions through the years. Rojas homered in three of these match-ups, all on totally different pitches.
“Jefferson, he owns me,” Horton stated. “Like, all right, dude, we get it! You’re a good hitter.
“But he is actually expert for his age, and simply actually mature for his age. So I’m completely satisfied to have him on our crew.”
Rojas, ranked the Cubs’ No. 5 prospect by MLB Pipeline, is the youngest Cubs player in major-league camp this year. The 20-year-old non-roster invitee is already turning heads.
“Jefferson’s made a great impression,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Just with the ability to see Jefferson two years in the past, and the place we’re at proper now — wow. … We’ve obtained an excellent offensive participant right here that is going to affect the baseball and do some injury. He’s going to be a harmful hitter.”
In addition to that backfield stay batting follow house run, Rojas homered in two Cactus League video games. Both have been no-doubters.
The most up-to-date helped raise the Cubs over the Brewers on Wednesday at American Family Field of Phoenix. He crushed a changeup 438 ft, in response to Statcast.
Rojas agreed that the big-leagues and Wrigley Field do not feel all that distant anymore.
“Getting to practice with players that play out there, it definitely feels closer,” he stated by crew interpreter Fredy Quevedo Jr.
Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly, previously a minor-league coordinator, watched Rojas play in the Dominican Republic when he was about 17 years previous.
“You could tell that he was going to be a good player, but he was so raw,” Kelly informed the Sun-Times. “And just seeing him out here, how hard he’s hitting the ball, where his swing has come — his swing looks so good right now. So it’s really, really fun.”
Rojas’ listed peak and weight, 5-foot-11 and 150 kilos, is definitely outdated. But he isn’t precisely bodily imposing. His energy comes from a mixture of weight lifting and medicine-ball coaching, and environment friendly swing mechanics.
“A lot of the work that he’s done down in the minor leagues is getting into his legs and using his lower half and creating a little bit of posture,” Kelly stated. “So, his swing path is really cleaned up, and just the overall efficiency of his swing, where it is right now, is generating some output. He’s hitting the ball really hard — much harder than what I thought or expected from him, especially in a major-league camp at 20 years old.”
The day earlier than, Kelly had double-checked Rojas’ age, not fairly believing that he was nonetheless solely 20.
Rojas hasn’t but performed above Double-A, getting 39 video games at that stage below his belt final yr. Naturally, his manufacturing dipped as he adjusted. I posted a .485 OPS after proudly owning a .871 OPS in Single-A to start out the season.
“You’ve got a lot more more prospects in there,” he stated, “so it’s definitely a lot more competitive than what you’ve got in South Bend.”
So, the big-leagues aren’t calling fairly but. But Rojas has undoubtedly captured the major-league workers’s consideration.
