What do you make of Johan Rojas’ 2025 so far?

It’s been an interesting month.

April baseball is defined by small sample sizes. It’s almost always fool’s work to try and determine absolutely anything, for better or worse, after just one month of play and roughly 30 games of a 162-game schedule. But that doesn’t stop us from forming opinions on what we see in front of us.

With that said, it’s been hard to nail down Johan Rojas so far. Entering play on Wednesday, Rojas was hitting .288 with a .712 OPS. At least so far, it appears that some of his success from winter ball has carried over, as he’s shown an improving sense of pitch recognition. He absolutely demolished a home run on Tuesday night in a 1-1 count after laying off a breaking ball in the dirt. That’s a situation where he usually gets over-aggressive and swings over that pitch that bounces. Instead, he spit it on it and connected with a short, powerful swing on the next pitch, a mistake changeup over the middle of the plate.

But even with all of those positive developments, the same old problems still persist with Rojas’ bat. He still struggles to utilize bunting despite his excellent speed, and even if he appears to be recognizing pitches better, he still has 16 strikeouts to 4 walks. His average exit velocity of 88 MPH and expected batting average of .215 also don’t bode particularly well.

The biggest worrying sign however has been his multiple defensive gaffes. Rojas is incredibly gifted in the field, but there’s already been at least four instances where a mental mistake led to runs for the other team. He let a ball drop in front of him in Atlanta, he launched an unnecessary throw into the crowd, and on Tuesday night alone he misplayed two balls hit directly at him. Even if you think his bat is improved, Rojas needs to play elite defense in order to have real value.

So, what do you make of Rojas’ 2025 so far? He’s had an extended run starting in center field due to Brandon Marsh’s injury. Has Rojas encouraged you are discouraged you? Do you think there are real improvements so far? Or are you concerned about the defensive miscues?