The Pittsburgh Pirates have reached an agreement with Jose Rojas on a minor league contract, as reported by Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Rojas has been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis.
At 31 years old, Rojas has played in 83 MLB games, all with the Angels between 2021-22. During that time, he struggled with a .188/.245/.339 slash line and a 28.6% strikeout rate over 241 plate appearances. While he hasn’t made it back to the big leagues in the past two years, Rojas had a strong season in Triple-A after signing with the Yankees in the offseason. In 67 games with their top affiliate in Scranton, he posted a .254/.359/.561 line with 18 home runs. Despite his success in Triple-A, the Yankees released him a few weeks ago without adding him to their struggling MLB infield.
Rojas, a left-handed hitter, boasts a .273/.346/.532 slash line in almost 1500 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He is capable of playing all four corner positions and has experience at second base. In the minors, Rojas has mainly played in the corner infield positions. His addition provides the Pittsburgh Pirates with a versatile left-handed bat as non-roster depth.
