ST. LOUIS — As far back as last year’s MLB playoffs, veteran Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said he planned to retire at the end of the 2026 season.
Thus, it came as a surprise this week when Rojas told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that he could reconsider the decision under one specific scenario.
Given the Dodgers’ status as World Series front-runners, that might not be a very big “if” at all.
On Friday, Rojas expounded on his thought process in an interview with The California Post, saying the idea to continue playing only really crystallized in the last few weeks.
“It’s not that I’ve already made the decision,” he said. “It’s just, I need to keep myself, and my family, open to return if we win.”
Much can change between now and then, of course. Rojas noted that, in addition to the club’s postseason fate, much will depend on how his body is holding up by the end of the fall.
“But,” he added, “I feel like, if we get the opportunity to three-peat, it’s gonna be really hard for me not to come back.”
Entering the season, Rojas was fully expecting to hang it up at the end of the year — so much so that, when he re-signed with the club on a one-year contract this winter, it included an agreement for him to join the team’s player development department as a coach in 2027.
But then this year’s regular season began, and the 37-year-old got reabsorbed in the rhythms of the campaign.
He has hit well over the opening month, entering Friday with a .341 batting average. He has also played more than expected, filling in at second base and shortstop with Tommy Edman and Mookie Betts injured, and been encouraged about how he’s felt physically.
“My body is telling me that I can still do it,” he said. “And I know it’s just been a month. Like I said, I don’t know how I’m gonna feel in September, October, November, because we’ll go through a lot. But right now, I feel great. So I’m keeping myself in that positive mindset of winning and coming back.”
During the first couple weeks, Rojas’ focus was more centered on reaching 1,000 career hits, a mark he eclipsed April 20 in Colorado.
It was only then, as he sought new personal goals to fuel his daily motivation, that he began to contemplate his future again.
“I started thinking about, ‘You know what, this is a real possibility of making a deep run and winning another championship,’” he said. “And then what’s gonna happen? I can’t really go home with the opportunity to do something legendary, trying to go four in a row.”
So, in his own mind at least, he carved out his retirement caveat.
“I wanted to keep that as a personal goal: ‘I want to win again, so I can come back,’” he said. “If I keep reaching or I keep going toward that, I feel like I’m gonna be better.”
Even if the team wins again, Rojas noted he would have to talk to his family and the organization.
He added that he wouldn’t keep playing for any team other than the Dodgers.
“If they’re open to it, and we finish on good terms for me physically and for them to believe that I can still play, I will be happy to reconsider coming back and trying to go for four in a row,” he said.
After all, no MLB team other than the Yankees has ever completed a four-peat — and it’s been almost three-quarters of a century since they last did it with five in a row from 1949 to 1953.
“I [don’t want to miss] the opportunity of being on this team after winning three in a row,” he said, adding: “I don’t want to have any regrets after I retire.”
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