Down in Triple-A, 32-year-old former big leaguer Jose Rojas has somewhat quietly put together one of the best seasons in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders franchise history.
In the third game of the current series at PNC Field in northeastern Pennsylvania against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Rojas hit a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a tie and give the RailRiders a 3-2 victory. It was his 30th home run and 100th RBI.
Then Saturday, in the penultimate game of the series,
the RailRiders were trailing by four runs in the fourth inning when Rojas cracked a three-run home run to ignite a comeback that led to an 8-5 victory.
Rojas’ 31st home run enabled him to take over the International League lead from Bob Seymour of the Durham Bulls; Seymour has been up with the Tampa Bay Rays since Aug. 15. His 103 RBIs lead the league by 13 over Jonathon Long of the Iowa Cubs and Edwin Ríos of the Louisville Bats. He ranks fourth in all of Minor League Baseball in home runs and third in RBIs.
Rojas is just the third player in franchise history with 30 home runs in a season. Jorge Vazquez (“El Chato” for the longtime Baby Bomber fans who remember him) holds the record with 32 home runs in 2011, and current RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan hit 30 in 2009. Also, only one other player in franchise history has driven in 100 or more runs. That is current Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, who had 106 RBIs in 1999 — back when Scranton was a Phillies affiliate.
Not only does Rojas have the quantity of home runs, but they have been quality blasts, too, with nearly half coming in key situations. Four have tied games and 10 have been go-ahead homers. Thirteen have been hit in the seventh inning or later. He has four multi-homer games, highlighted by his three-homer, eight-RBI performance May 1st at Syracuse (plus another three-homer game on July 19th).
Versatility is also one of Rojas’ strengths. Hehas played first base, second base, third base, designated hitter and both corner outfield positions. He even pitched one game, getting the final two outs of a lopsided loss to the Toledo Mud Hens in May.
That was when the RailRiders were struggling. Their record on May 29 was 23-28. But with Rojas’ bat helping lead the way, the RailRiders have gone 50-29 since and are on the brink of winning the International League second-half title. Entering Sunday, they held a four-game lead over second-place Syracuse with seven games remaining in the regular season. Their magic number to clinch is four. Winning the second half would advance them to the best-of-three league championship series against first-half champion, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, top affiliate of the Miami Marlins.
It remains to be seen if Rojas wins the International League Most Valuable Player award. If he does, he would become the fourth player in franchise history to receive the honor. Phillies great Shane Victorino of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons won it in 2005. Duncan won it in 2009 as a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankee. Ben Gamel of the RailRiders won it in 2016, just around the beginning of what’s been a solid nine-year career.
That year, 2016, was also when Rojas was drafted in the 36th round by the Los Angeles Angels. He made his major league debut April 2, 2021, with the Angels and appeared in 83 major league games over two seasons with 42 hits, including six home runs, and 16 RBIs, before heading to the KBO with Doosan in 2023.
Last season, Rojas played 67 games with the RailRiders and batted .254 (58-for-228) with 18 home runs and 57 RBIs. His 2025 can’t necessarily be qualified as a “comeback season” because that’s not bad, but potentially winning the International League MVP immediately afterward isn’t too shabby.
