Josh Rojas fueling clutch Royals win comes with unbelievable roster promotion story

The Kansas City Royals kept their strong start to the month of June rolling on Thursday, overcoming an ill-timed rain delay to come up with an 8-6 victory. And the difference maker in this game was a rather unusual name in the recently promoted Josh Rojas. The veteran utility man was only on the roster on Thursday as result of pitcher Stephen Kolek unfortunately being placed family medical emergency leave. But he almost wasn’t at the game altogether.

Rojas started the day in Omaha, where he appeared in the Strom Chaser’s 6-4 afternoon win over the Columbus Clippers, hitting leadoff and going 1-for-3 with a run scored before being lifted mid-game. He then reportedly missed his initial flight to Minneapolis and only arrived at Target Field with the Royals around the eighth inning.

Then, as we all saw, giving new definition to coming in cold, Rojas was called upon to pinch hit in the ninth inning and subsequently drove in a two-run single which proved to be the difference in expanding their early-June winning record.

When talking to Royals sideline reporter Joel Goldberg after the game Rojas described just how uniquely different this situation was, playing in two separate games in two different states in one day, but amazingly enough how ready he was for this situation.

“This was a first,” Rojas said. “I actually texted my buddies on the way when I landed, I saw that it was delayed, so I was like ‘I might get in this game tonight’.”

“Luckily I already had a game today, so I was ready to go, I was pretty primed up,” he said. “Took probably 15 to 20 swings to get loose and I was ready to go.”

Josh Rojas hadn’t exactly set Triple-A ablaze before his Thursday night Royals heroics

What makes this situation all the more wild and all the more unique is the fact that Rojas arguably wasn’t a surefire option to be called upon for a call-up. Sure, he had 2324 big league plate appearance prior to making his season debut Thursday, but he hadn’t set the world on fire with the Storm Chasers after making a strong Spring Training impression.

In 192 plate appearances across 49 games in Omaha, Rojas was slashing just .247/.309/.437 with an 88 wRC+. Not outright dreadful by any means, but not inspiring either. In situations like this, you want experience though, which made him a more logical choice for a promotion than inexperienced names performing better than him in Triple-A this season like Brett Squires or Peyton Wilson. That being said, he wasn’t a shoo-in given Abraham Toro could’ve also provided that major league capable utility role and had a similar stat-line to Rojas in Triple-A this season – .236/.330/.406 with an 89 wRC+ in 50 games.

How long Rojas remains on the roster remains to be seen, especially considering Kolek is only on a more temporary leave list. That being said, if he performs like he did Thursday when called upon moving forward, with his ability to play second base, third base and the corner outfield, he may have more of claim to a bench spot than someone like Tyler Tolbert for example.