I haven’t exactly made it a secret that Jefferson Rojas is one of my favorite prospects in the Chicago Cubs’ farm system. After debuting in the DSL at 17, Rojas skipped complex ball and wound up at Low-A Myrtle Beach for his first Stateside season. That is a rare and impressive thing in its own right, but he not only handled shortstop well, he hit .268/.345/.404/115 wRC+, much more than holding his own in a league for which he was three-ish years younger than the average player. And he did it, again, in his Stateside debut as a shortstop.
Oh, and also? He looked the part. Watching his swings from last year, he just looked like he already had such an advanced approach, a strong base, and even some developing opposite-field power.
Well, if that wasn’t enough, I’ve now got an additional reason to love Jefferson Rojas: he wants to be like Javy Báez. Enjoy a couple profiles on the Cubs’ 10th-ish ranked prospect (I think he should be higher), and his thoughts on Báez:
“That’s my guy. That’s who I wanted to play with,” Rojas said of Báez. “That’s the guy that I want to emulate. That’s the guy I want to look up to. So it originally kind of started off with Javier Báez. I was like, ‘I can play that position, as well.’”
Javy Báez, of course, was almost everyone’s favorite player when he was at his peak with the Cubs, combining tremendous impact with skill and joy and completely unexpected moments of magic. So if Rojas wants to be like Javy, that’d be great by me!
Their games are a little different, of course, with Rojas’s defensive ceiling at shortstop probably more limited, but his offensive upside with a chance to be a little more well-rounded. But I just like the idea of Rojas looking up to Báez, and us getting to follow another tremendous shortstop prospect up through the system. Rojas, who turns 19 at the end of April, figures to start his year at High-A South Bend, his first cold-weather assignment.
The other point here, by the way, is to reinforce just how important it is to have international talent pipelines that churn out homegrown stars. Because those stars become the heroes to the younger players still in those countries, and then they come of age with a positive association with the organization. It’s a small thing, but it’s non-zero. And in a highly-competitive environment like International Free Agency, you’re looking for every tiebreaker you can find.