The Pittsburgh Pirates have traded Mel Rojas Jr. to the Atlanta Braves for cash. Rojas was recently dropped from the Indianapolis roster and wasn’t seeing much playing time early in the season. In 12 games, he hit .154 with a .484 OPS.
Rojas was drafted in the third round in 2010 and called a raw player with five-tool potential. He never quite put everything together, always seeming to be more potential over production. He would have become a minor league free agent after this season and with the amount of time he was playing, he wasn’t going to stick around after the season. The Pirates essentially sent him to the team that has a spot for him in a deal that likely was just a trade made to help the player. Cash deals like this could be for as little as $1 and that’s just to complete the transaction.
In his seven seasons, he hit .257/.325/.363 in 684 games, with 28 homers and 80 stolen bases.
Rojas was assigned to the Double-A Mississippi Braves roster.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
I have a feeling that a change, will improve his production.
Will it be enough to get him where he wants to go?
We will have to wait and see.
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Too bad he wasn’t worth a reliever.
Its hard to show production with 12 AB’s. I actually worry as the system gets stronger that we have more players lose their motivation and slots.
My point is you have to ser this coming in your evaluations and trade a player with upside before his value slides to a buck.
This player had value a year ir two back could have sent him out then for a better return.
His value was never huge but you are right he did have some value a few years back…and they wanted him back then because of it. Can’t blame them for wanting to develop him. Now they have a bunch of good OF in the system so he was not needed. You don’t always have a crystal ball…and the shape of the system changes over a few years so if you aren’t playing as well other guys blow past you on the depth chart. Rojas was a victim of the numbers game and his own mediocre performance. Also, sometimes you just need a change of scenery to get re-focused and motivated.
Look, all valid points however its been argued here that the team is reluctant to move prospects and its because they need them. That doesnt and should be the reason to watch those wither on the vine.
Yes Rojas could have broken out but they had other more significant players they were confident in.
This is something that should be actively pushed, maybe not Billy Beane style where you trade your whole farm system, but they can make decisions on fringy guys with upside to give them that change of scenery and still return value.
Its not all or nothing.
They traded a bunch of prospects last year and got great value back…and they didn’t trade the farm to do it either. It put them in great position to trade a higher value guy like Kuhl or Hanson or Ramirez this year.
Well maybe Ramirez
Actually Id prefer they trade a vet and promote those players who seem legit talents.
It was 12 games, and he only played that much because he wasn’t doing good. I don’t think there was a good time to trade him for value because his best point was 2014 and the system wasn’t loaded with outfielders then like it is now. He had a legit shot at being a fourth OF coming into 2015 and he did so poorly, he got demoted to Double-A. The best time to deal him may have been in November when he started off hot in winter ball, but even then, the return would be very minimal. Once the season went along in winter and he hit a huge slump, then got benched and eventually dropped from the roster, you knew his shipped had probably sailed.
Mel Jr. has been in the system longer Dots Miller!
With your prescience, I’m sure NH would like to have you on his staff. 🙂
The simple fact is that Rojas was given many chances, and was eventually passed over by ballplayers with better results.
Even two years ago NH wouldn’t have gotten much for him.
we could have gotten a middle reliever that, at this point, may be more useful than schubel……..just saying
You say that as if it were fact, Y.
It is just conjecture tho, not a sure thing to beat up on NH about.
True- thus why I’m not beating him up. Hindsight is 20/20- no one knew
It seems like Mel has been around as long as PP. Hope he gets some consideration with the Beaneaters.
Alright, now get Allie to Indy 🙂
Stetson is busy chopping down trees with his pet ox currently……
I don’t know if this is an actual reference I’m missing but I still love it.
Stetson Allie= Giant or……in this case……Paul Bunyon
Rojas played 12 games and was dropped from the roster because there wasn’t a spot for him. If Allie replaces Rojas it means he isn’t playing anywhere. He is also hitting .167 this month, so I’m not sure he’s next up.
Bah! Promote Allie 🙂
I get you…but Allie’s had such a twisted path and I love rooting for the underdog.
I suspect Allie will be going down this same Rojas-like path soon.
Dontcha speak bad about my boy…or else I’ll talk to Tim and delay the next delivery of your Prospects Guide…
…just kidding…
…Tim doesn’t return my emails…
Only with a lot more moola in his wallet.
A pretty high draft pick who never seemed to get much of a chance with the Pirates organization. Part of that is due to Cutch, Polanco, and Marte – but he could have been groomed as a 4th outfielder. He looks the part – and you would think he would have been more successful given his pedigree and obvious physical gifts. I wish him well….hope he gets a chance in Atlanta – they certainly need help.
684 games is more than enough opportunity to show what u have. NH and the organization have been really fair to promote production and at the end of the day, Jr. just could not get it done.
I think you are being a bit harsh – hundreds of players get drafted every year – ALL of them dream of playing in “The Show” – a small percentage make it – a very small percentage. It has nothing to do with “getting it done” Hard work and talent come together in very few. Rojas is young enough that a change of scenery could lead to it coming together for him – not very likely – but there was ZERO need for an outfielder in the Bucs minor league system,
Yes, Rojas isn’t a bad player. Who’s to say he still won’t carve out a career as an mlb reserve. But right now he looks like a career AAA guy. He’s in the right place to maybe get hot and get some AB in Atlanta though…they are running d’Arnaud out there lately so anything is possible. It is kind of a bummer that Rojas has to go to AA though. I think he has proven he is better than that level.