Dodgers World Series champion reveals plans to retire after 2026 season

Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas plans to retire after the 2026 season, he told Doug McKain of Dodgers Nation following Thursday night’s series-clinching win over the Phillies. The 36-year-old Rojas is an impending free agent and said he hopes to remain in Dodger blue for the final season of his career.

“I’ve been giving it everything that I have every single night for the four years that I’ve been here,” Rojas said. “Hopefully I can finish my career here next year because I’m going to retire after next year.” That’ll be Rojas’ 13th season in the big leagues overall, and he has accrued more than 11 full years of service time.

It stands to reason that the Dodgers would be happy to keep him around on another cheap one-year contract. Rojas is in his second stint with Los Angeles. He debuted there in 2014 and was traded to the Marlins the following year. Rojas spent eight seasons in Miami, most of it as the starting shortstop. The Fish dealt him back to the Dodgers over the 2022-23 offseason.

Rojas was in the final year of his contract with Miami. The Dodgers immediately signed him to an extension for the 2024 season that came with a ’25 club option. They exercised the $5M option after he hit .283/.337/.410 last year. Rojas has been almost as productive this season, batting .262/.318/.397 over 317 trips to the plate. While he isn’t going to hit for much power, he still reliably puts the ball in play and provides good defense at second or third base. Rojas’ days as an everyday shortstop are behind him, yet he has chipped in 10 starts and logged 117 innings at the position this year.

The Dodgers have used Rojas in five of their six postseason games. He started at second base for the clincher of the Wild Card Series against the Reds and was at the hot corner for Game 2 of the Division Series in Philadelphia. Rojas is a decent complement to left-handed hitting Max Muncy at third base. He has been more productive this season than fellow impending free agent utilityman Kiké Hernández. It’d make sense for the Dodgers to let Hernández walk and bring Rojas back on another deal in the $5M range. If they let both players depart to open at-bats for Hyeseong Kim and/or rookie Alex Freeland, Rojas shouldn’t have a hard time finding a semi-regular utility role elsewhere.