Why would an established big leaguer, least of all one who reportedly had contention-minded suitors, join up with a White Sox team coming off a 41-121 season and a related immolation of their industry reputation?
A clear path to opportunity, is the frequent headlining reason. Nothing underscores the idea that playing time translates to money earned like arbitration season.
"I'm still trying to show that I can be an everyday guy," said White Sox infielder Josh Rojas, whose newly official one-year, $3.5 million contract makes him the team's largest free-agency outlay on a position player this winter.
The 30-year-old former 26th-round pick came up through the Diamondbacks system, meaning that a lot of his descriptions of talking with the Sox front office center around assistant general manager Josh Barfield, and that he's uniquely sympathetic to the idea that a team can return to a respectable level of play in the wake of a season of 110 losses or more. In having a view of the path out, Rojas also sounds acquainted with the idea that his window to be an everyday guy in Chicago puts him athwart a cache of young White Sox infielders who are eventually supposed to overtake him.
"I've been a part of one of those seasons where it just feels like nothing goes your way and doesn't matter how well you play, you just can't put a win on the board," Rojas said. "Sometimes you have years like that. I don't think it was very telling on the talent. I think there's a lot of talent on the roster and a lot of guys coming up, a lot of good prospects coming up. I just think it was a season of bad luck and I feel like it's a good fit for me with a lot of young guys to kind of show them how to go about their business, and be a professional, and have success to the big-league level."
The 2022 season where a young Diamondbacks team improved their win total by 22 games was also Rojas' finest statistical campaign, as his .269/.349/.391 batting line was complemented by 23 stolen bases. But two subsequent inferior offensive years have seen Rojas dealt to the Mariners mid-2023 as the Diamondbacks rolled with Evan Longoria at third base for their World Series run, and non-tendered after a cold second half of 2024 in Seattle, making his merits as an everyday player something Rojas feels he must re-establish.
Working with renowned Mariners infield coach Perry Hill has seen Rojas' defensive metrics turn around, to where his free agent market was driven by glovework that's markedly improved over the past two years. Even with much of that work being dedicated to improving at third base, Rojas' conception of life as an everyday player isn't wedded to taking over a single position, and he had offered himself up for at least spot work at every position but catcher by the conclusion of his introductory Zoom call with media.
But as Yolmer Sánchez could attest, staking your living as a premier defender at non-premium infield spots can make for a tenuous existence. The two seasons Rojas cleared 500 plate appearances (2021 and 2022) were also the two times when he was an above-average hitter, and he's too experienced to ignore the correlation. Since those two strong years were largely staked upon getting on base (.345 OBP) and his chase rates remain admirable, Rojas thinks he can stand to be less ambitious with his contact.
"I had a really good first half, and then I hit a couple homers and fell in love with that," Rojas said. "And I was trying to launch. Ended up hitting the most fly balls I’ve hit last year. My exit velo was better than it’s ever been, but I was hitting too many balls in the air at a park where it wasn’t a place to do that. And I just once that happened, a month goes by and you look up and you’ve dropped 100 points."
Be it home runs, exit velocity or bat speed metrics, the numbers suggest Rojas simply doesn't have much pop. While that lowers his ceiling as a player, Rojas is at the point in his career where the ceiling to chase is the best play he's shown in the past, and chasing a skill he doesn't have isn't the way to get him there.
"My goal this year is to hit as many doubles as I can, shoot gaps, line to line, keep the ball out of the air, no easy outs," Rojas said. "One of the benefits of playing in a park where it flies, and it’s good for a lefty hitter, is it’s not something I have to force. It’s something to focus on through the year, not force homers but hit line drives, and when I connect good they leave the yard."
A restoration of Rojas's OBP skills supported by a glove that has bloomed into an asset at multiple infield spots would make him a movable, if not transformative asset at the trade deadline. But that best-case scenario is easier to focus on from a zoomed-out franchise view, where Rojas is a low-cost, short-term investment whose failure would just give way to infield prospects who have a greater chance of playing a role on the next winning White Sox team. For the man himself, putting the cart before the horse carries more risk.
"That’s way above my pay grade," Rojas said. "I’m just trying to go out and win games. When it comes to looking ahead, a great season for me is really important to stay in the big leagues. Whether I end up with the White Sox long-term or they trade me, or I play out the year and sign somewhere else in the offseason, that’s too much to think about for me. I just know that it’s an important year for a lot of guys on this team."
Dedicated readers will recall veterans of last season's team also making the fight to revitalize their playing careers the rallying cry of the clubhouse, to decidedly mixed results. The 2025 White Sox invite a lot of looking ahead, and in this case too the most exciting outcome rests in what all parties receive after a successful Rojas tenure in Chicago is wrapped.
But it's still January, pitchers and catchers report in a month, and the whole point of signing an established capable defender is to make the current environment around the White Sox more livable for everyone
"I’ve seen my Instagram since I signed, I’ve been tagged in a few tweets," Rojas said. "I’ve been getting a pretty good taste of what it can be like in Chicago when their teams aren’t winning. I’m a big NFL fan, I see what they’ve done to the Bears on social media so I’m pretty familiar. We’ll see depending how the year is going whether I’m opening Twitter or Instagram."
