Local media, including John Morosi of the U.S. MLB Network, reported on the 19th (Korean time) that the New York Yankees signed a minor league contract with Jose Rojas. Rojas includes the right to invite Major League Spring Camp and will receive $750,000 (about 1 billion won) if he is promoted to the Major League and $180,000 (about 240 million won) if he stays in the Minor League.

In 2016, he started his professional career after being nominated by the Los Angeles Angels for the 1086th overall pick in the 36th round of the MLB Rookie Draft. Rojas first took the big league stage in 2021 in his long minor league career, and he played 61 games that year, leaving a batting average of 0.208 OPS 0.676. And he was given a chance to play 22 games the following year, but he was able to pack his bags after a poor batting average of 0.125.

While Rojas had the advantage of being able to pass the ball over the fence at any time, he had a fatal disadvantage of poor accuracy. As a result, Rojas, who did not survive in the Major League, had contact with the Doosan Bears ahead of the 2023 season. At that time, Doosan had high expectations for Rojas, who promised to accompany Jose Miguel Fernandez after drawing 92 arches for six seasons in the minor leagues, as he showed deteriorating skills year by year.

After joining the Doosan Bears, Rojas had a whopping 12 hits, one homer, five RBIs and a batting average of 0.400 OPS 1.153 in 11 exhibition games, raising expectations for the regular season. And in the first game of the season, he made his first homerun against the Lotte Giants with a walk-off homer to give Lee Seung-yeop, the national batter, the first victory. However, Rojas got off to the worst start with a batting average of 0.176 during the month of April.

Rojas showed a slight rebound with a batting average of 0.242 in May, but when he hit the bottom with a batting average of 0.194 in June, he suffered a bitterness that eventually went down to two. Coach Lee Seung-yeop made every effort to put a "dedicated coach" so that Rojas could survive, and Rojas finally began to open his eyes. Rojas succeeded in rebounding with a batting average of 0.282 in July with a dedicated coach, and in August, Doosan helped Doosan finish the season in fifth place after continuing its good momentum, including three home runs and 15 RBIs with a batting average of 0.305.

Notably, Rojas' presence shone in the postseason as well. Although Rojas failed to lead Doosan to victory, he showed off his strong batting performance by making two hits (one homer) with one RBI and one run from two times at bat, including an "Archie" in the wild card (WC) game against the NC Dinos at NC Park in Changwon. However, after the 2023 season, Doosan's choice was to say goodbye. After completing his joining with Rojas, Doosan embraced Henry Ramos, who played for KT Wiz as a new foreign hitter.

Rojas, who lost his contract with Doosan, eventually signed a minor league contract with the Yankees and returned to the U.S. What was the reason why he chose to break up with Rojas, who hit 19 home runs and recorded an OPS of 0.819 while using Jamsil Stadium, the largest stadium in the KBO League? Lee Seung-yeop, who met at the 42nd anniversary ceremony on the 15th, said the reason. The head coach carefully opened the door, saying, "It was a waste of Rojas."

Rojas replaced him because of extreme variations. The huge difference between good and bad conditions was what held him back. "Lohas showed great performance in the second half of last year and wild card in Changwon. However, there was a clear difference between poor performance and good performance. I felt sorry and worried because there were not a few 19 home runs in Jamsil, but I had to think about the ratio of left-rights because there were many left-handed hitters in the team," manager Lee Seung-yeop said.

Ramos, who is newly joining the team, can enter both left and right at-bats as a "switch heater." Although KT did not play many games due to injury, it recorded 89 hits, 13 homers and 55 RBIs in 76 games for Triple-A under the Cincinnati Reds last year, recording a 0.318 OPS of 0.964, and was called by the Major League based on his good performance.

"As most of the ace pitchers in the KBO League are left-handed, we needed strong batters to enter the right-handed lineup. Ramos is a switch hitter, and he had good on-base percentage (0.411) and slugging percentage (0.543) at Triple-A," said the head coach. "I thought that a player who can play both left and right at bat would help the team's performance," he said. "I think my previous experience will help me quickly adjust to the KBO League. I hope that Yang Eui-ji, Kim Jae-hwan, and Yang Seok-hwan can play explosive roles in the central lineup."

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