Miami Marlins trade Miguel Rojas to LA

The Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers just completed a big trade. It also appears that the recent signing of Jean Segura may lead to him playing second base or SS after all, at least until a certain top prospect is ready. Miguel Rojas is now gone, traded to LA for SS prospect Jacob Amaya, who will either start the season in the Minors, or directly replace Rojas at S to start the season.

Miami Marlins traded Miguel Rojas for Jacob Amaya.

Miguel Rojas was a NL Gold Glove candidate at SS in 2022, but wasn't a good offensive player during his time with the Miami Marlins. He batted .265/.318/.366 in 870 games and 2670 AB from 2015 to 2022. Rojas never hit more than 11 home runs in a season and his RBi high was 53 in 2018 (also the season when he hit those 11 homers). He did have some good hitting seasons for batting average: .290 in 2017, .284 in 2019 and .304 in the shortened 2020 season. He batted an awful .236/.283/.323 in 2022 and that seems to have been why he ultimately was traded.

Interestingly, Rojas actually started his Major League career with the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2014, so it's actually a homecoming for him in a way. He batted .181/.242/.221 in 85 games and 149 AB that season, so hopefully for him and LA he can improve on those marks in 2023. The Miami Marlins will miss Rojas's defense (potentially), but not his bat. He never did better than 2.6 WAR in 2021, and was worth 2.5 WAR in 2022. He was clearly replaceable and especially for a good potential bat.

Jacob Amaya finished the 2022 season in AA for LA (that rhymes), and batted .264/.370/.500. Earlier in AAA, he batted .259/.368/.381 so apparently that was worth the demotion. Fangraphs has Amaya as the #15 prospect in the LA system. Baseball America has him as their best IF defensive prospect. I'm excited to see what he can bring to the table with The Fish. He also is 10 years younger than Rojas (24 to 34) so the team got younger as well. I think that this is a good trade, but that we still need offensive help for the lineup.