LOS ANGELES — Miguel Rojas’s retirement is official, and his second career has already begun. The Dodgers infielder, who told reporters on October 15 that his playing days were over, posted a photograph on Monday from the club’s player-development facility in Arizona with a one-word caption: “Work.” MLB.com reported that Rojas “has officially retired from professional baseball and immediately transitioned into a player development role with the Los Angeles Dodgers.” The job was agreed last December, when he re-signed on a one-year, $5.5 million contract for one final season. His exact title has not been announced.
The Last Game
His final game was Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on October 15, a 6–4 loss that completed Milwaukee’s sweep of the Dodgers. Rojas had said all season that 2026 would be his last, with one exception: he would consider coming back if the Dodgers completed a three-peat. When the season ended, he told his teammates first. “This is it. I’m moving on with the next chapter in my life,” he said, as reported by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “The last four years here changed my life. Today was the last time that I wore the uniform as a player, and my cleats, and it’s really hard to take them off right now.”
The Moment
Rojas leaves with a place in Dodgers history that players with far bigger numbers never reach. In Game 7 of the 2025 World Series against Toronto, with the Dodgers facing elimination in the ninth inning, he hit the game-tying home run. The Dodgers won the game and their second consecutive championship. It was the peak of a career that began with a defensive play: as a rookie in 2014, his play at third base preserved Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter. Across 13 major-league seasons he played 1,401 games, hitting .260 with 58 home runs and 404 runs batted in, and won two World Series rings.
‘He’s Our Leader’
No tribute carried more weight than Mookie Betts’s. Rojas had mentored Betts through his move to shortstop, begun in 2024; a year later Betts was a Gold Glove finalist at the position. “I don’t really have words to describe him,” Betts said. “Especially for me and all the growth that I’ve had, he’s kind of like that dad that’s sitting and watching to make sure I’m good. Making sure I’m learning everything. Every game I took the field, he was always there watching, making sure I’m doing everything right. For the boys, he’s our leader. A vocal guy who gets on the mic, makes sure we’re playing the game hard, holds everybody accountable. Not having him in a Dodger uniform will be something completely different for all of us. Hopefully he’s still with us.” His teammates voted him the Roy Campanella Award — the club’s most inspirational player honour — three years running, the first player ever to win it three straight times and only the second to win three, after Justin Turner.
The Viejitos
On MLB Network, Rojas named his closest friends on the team — Kiké Hernández, Freddie Freeman, Betts and Max Muncy — and explained their nickname. “We’re called the viejitos because they started calling us the dinosaurs, old players, old guys. They didn’t know if we could still do it,” he said. “In some form, we showed the world that we were able to do it.” He is not quite finished playing, either: he is set to appear in special games for Tiburones de La Guaira of the Venezuelan winter league on November 14 and 15 at loanDepot Park in Miami.
The Road
Rojas signed with Cincinnati out of Venezuela in 2006, at 16, and spent seven years in the Reds’ system without reaching the majors. A minor-league deal brought him to the Dodgers in 2013 and to the big leagues in 2014; that winter he was traded to Miami in the seven-player deal built around Dee Strange-Gordon, and spent eight seasons as the Marlins’ shortstop before the Dodgers traded for him again in January 2023. The last four seasons brought the best baseball of his career and both championships. He made his intentions plain when he re-signed: “I told them that I’m gonna be loyal. I wanna stay here. I wanna wear this uniform or this logo in a different capacity, and continue to make the organization better.” As of Monday, he is doing exactly that.
Rojas — In Short
Miguel Rojas, 37, has officially retired after 13 major-league seasons and two World Series titles with the Dodgers, and has already started work in the club’s player-development department at its Arizona facility. The author of the game-tying home run in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, he was voted the Dodgers’ most inspirational player three years running, and Mookie Betts called him “our leader.”
Sources: MLB.com; Dodgers Nation; Dodger Blue; MLB Trade Rumors; Sports Illustrated; reporting of October 15–27, 2026.
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