Calls Mount for Dodgers to Punish $11 Million Veteran After Saturday’s Performance
Outside of two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani, it’s never a good sign when a position player pitches.
Los Angeles Dodgers fans were displeased enough seeing veteran utilityman Miguel Rojas take the mound Saturday night. Rojas allowed seven hits and five earned runs over two innings, throwing 23 of 33 pitches for strikes in a 16-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
However, social media users had far more to say about Rojas’ attitude and behavior than they did about his overall performance.
Rojas turned heads when he imitated various teammates, including starters Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Clayton Kershaw’s pitching motions. It was a harmless gesture, sure, but one that left an extremely sour taste in fans’ mouths.
“Cut miguel rojas and ben casparius off the [expletive] team,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote.
Added another: “[I] will genuinely pay for miguel rojas’s ticket out of LA.”
Despite the lopsided score, TV cameras caught Dodgers players laughing at Rojas’ antics.
“I see the humor in this, but laughing and having a good ole time when suffering the worst home field loss in Dodgers History is unacceptable,” one fan vented. “This team has a leadership issue that is gonna land them at .500.”
For his part, Rojas apparently saw nothing wrong with his performance. The 36-year-old joked about mimicking Sasaki’s windup, remarking it’s “really uncomfortable” during a postgame media session.
“I don’t know how I can bring the leg up like that,” Rojas told reporters. “I think it was a bad decision. I should have stuck with the Yamamoto and Landon Knack combo.”
Although Rojas found humor in the situation, he shouldn’t expect to hear similar reactions from the Dodgers’ fanbase.
“If they can have stupid rules for everything under the sun, there should be a rule to stop this nonsense,” an X user commented. “Better to just forfeit the game at that point.”