As planned, Dodgers veteran Miguel Rojas will retire after the 2026 season. Unfortunately, the 2026 season hardly ended the way the Dodgers were planning.
The Dodgers’ quest for a three-peat ended on Thursday with a sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS. The Brewers came back from down 4-0 in Game 4, becoming the first team in MLB history to sweep a series in which they trailed in all four games.
Rojas got the start in that game, playing second base and batting seventh in what he later confirmed would be the final game of his career. He played two innings of defense and was due to hit in the bottom of the second, when a curious sequence of events saw him get pulled before his first at-bat.
Kyle Tucker led off the second inning with a single, prompting the Brewers to pull left-handed opener Shane Drohan for right-hander Dustin May. May then allowed another single to Teoscar Hernández.
With runners on first and second and a chance to draw first blood, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts opted to pinch-hit the left-handed Max Muncy for the right-handed Rojas, who usually gets starts only against southpaws.
And that’s how Rojas’ career ended. Muncy went on to strike out, but the Dodgers scored their four runs on a subsequent single from Andy Pages and homer from Shohei Ohtani.
Rojas’ confirmation after the game, via Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times:
"This is it as a player. That was my last game played. That was the last time I put these cleats on and this uniform on as a player … I’m ready to move on and start the next chapter of my career."
It’s a disappointing ending for Rojas in particular, though the Dodgers obviously had bigger concerns in an elimination game. Rojas had to understand what was coming, as part of the point of an opener is to force teams to pull their platoon bats or face disadvantageous matchups for the rest of the game.
Nothing will erase what Rojas did as a player, though. He spent 13 years as a defensive standout for the Dodgers and Miami Marlins, but it’s what he did as a hitter in the 2025 World Series that will be most remembered in baseball history. With the Dodgers down to their final two outs against the Toronto Blue Jays, Rojas hit a game-tying solo homer to force extra innings.
Rojas said last postseason he intended to retire after 2026 and opted to return to the Dodgers on a one-year, $5.5 million deal. That contract came with a plan for Rojas to join the Dodgers in a player development role after his retirement.
Rojas confirmed that’s still his intention:
“From now on, I’m going to start thinking about what’s going to happen in my life as a baseball person, other than being a player. I want to start my career on the other side of this business and I’m looking forward to doing it here with the Los Angeles Dodgers.”
Rojas’ professional career dates back to 2006 when he signed with the Cincinnati Reds out of Venezuela. He didn’t make his MLB debut until eight years later, when he earned a job after signing a minor-league deal and proceeded to carve out a bench role until a trade to the Marlins that included future teammate Kiké Hernández going to L.A.