Baseball is life! Josh Rojas’s dominance for the Mariners and what it means

What does Josh Rojas do to the lineup?

With Rojas being the best hitter on the team currently, it creates questions and tightens the rotations on players quite a bit going forward.

While Rojas has typically been a LHH platoon player, he is a career .254 hitter against left-handed pitching. That's not great, but that's not bad. Before last night, Rojas only saw 6 plate appearances against LHP in 2024, so it's possible we see Rojas get more opportunities. We even saw it last week when Rojas got action in left field, as his platoon buddy, Luis Urías, has been a pleasant surprise as well.

If Rojas and Urías continue to produce, this could affect players like Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone in the outfield. If they aren't producing, then Rojas could see more time in left field while Scott Servais gets another productive bat in the lineup.

Another question is what happens when JP Crawford returns to the lineup? When healthy, JP is a cornerstone player and will be a welcome addition to a lineup in desperate need of more help. That being said, you can't mess with a hot bat, and Rojas needs to stay in the leadoff spot. 

Last year when Crawford got hurt, Julio Rodriguez went nuclear in August. Scott didn't hesitate to put Crawford back into the leadoff spot when he was healthy. While it may not have been the reason Seattle missed the playoffs, it impacted the lineup. We'll find out in the near future if Servais learned from his previous mistake.