Phillies’ Johan Rojas Gets Results With Improved Swing
Outfielder Johan Rojas has long been known for his elite baserunning and outfield defense. But his ultimate success has always hinged on his offense, specifically his ability to get the ball in the air.
The 22-year-old Rojas had a 51% groundball rate for Double-A Reading this season and typically has hovered near 50% since the Phillies signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2018.
This year, the Phillies decided to try something different. In spring training, Rojas began working with Reading hitting coach Tyler Henson. Henson gave the young righthanded hitter a new hitting program that was centered on one goal: cleaning up his bat path.
“We’re trying to get it to be more direct,” Henson said. “The whole focus is to turn the barrel the right way. One of his biggest flaws was that his barrel gets too deep in his swing, behind him, and that’s the reason why in the past he’s had a super high groundball rate.”
Rojas has stuck with it since, and the Phillies were starting to see improvements.
Henson concedes that Rojas isn’t where he needs to be yet, but he has seen his line-drive rate jump from 14.8% at Reading in 2022 to 21.3% this year. He had also hit nine home runs through 73 games, while batting .308/.365/.479 with 29 stolen bases.
The 5-foot-11, 165-pound Rojas is in the midst of his best season. Henson said he’s matured as a hitter.
“Obviously, it’s a work in progress,” Henson said. “We’ll look at video, and when he sees the bad swings, he can identify why. We’ve dug into his stride length, too, and how it dictates how deep his barrel his gets at times. The longer he strides, the deeper his barrel gets.
“But when his swing does break down, he can feel it now. And in the next at-bat he cleans it up.”
