Rojas lives his MLB dream after call to The Show

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Johan Rojas is 22, so nobody should be surprised to learn he grew up playing “MLB The Show” on PlayStation.

It is even less of a surprise to learn he created himself as a player in the game. Everybody does that.

“I would make sure that I had a lot of speed, a lot of power, a lot of agility,” Rojas said Friday afternoon, smiling. “All the good stuff.”

But now Rojas really is in The Show. The Phillies on Friday promoted him from Double-A Reading to take Cristian Pache’s spot on the 26-man roster. Pache is on the 10-day injured list because of irritation in his right elbow from a screw he had surgically placed before he signed his first pro contract in 2015. Nobody knows how much time Pache might miss, so Rojas, who is the Phillies’ No. 6 prospect, will assume Pache’s role for the foreseeable future.

Rojas got the news in Reading, where he was enjoying a barbeque with family and friends, including his wife and 11-month-old son, Johan Rojas Jr.

“I was so excited,” Rojas said. “I started jumping. It was a special moment. My wife cried. My brother was super excited to the point where he was shaking. I was really emotional, too. I called my mom. She started crying, too. My uncles and aunts, they all started crying because they were very, very excited for me. It's incredible. It's something that I always dreamt about. I would play PlayStation sometimes and I would be like, ‘Yeah, I can be one of those guys.’ And I'm finally here. Even when I got to the ballpark today, I was like, 'Wow.' I had to pinch myself. I am actually here. I made it. It's been a great 24 hours.”

Rojas is slashing .306/.361/.484 with 20 doubles, five triples, nine home runs, 45 RBIs, 30 stolen bases and an .845 OPS with Reading. He leads the Eastern League in hits (98), triples and runs (56) and is tied for second in steals. It is the best offensive season of his pro career.

“Offensively, I worked on a couple of drills,” Rojas said. “They started happening in Spring Training. … I just kept doing them. They worked. They helped me at the plate.”

What exactly has been the focus?

“To hit the ball in the gap,” he said. “That's the No. 1 goal right now. … Be selective. Just swing at strikes. Be faithful to my game plan.”

Rojas already might be one of baseball’s best defensive center fielders, even before he is expected to make his big league debut in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader against Padres left-hander Blake Snell. (Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Rojas will play center against left-handed starters.) Rojas is that good defensively.

But even before Rojas got promoted, he figured to be mentioned quite a bit over the next couple weeks. Rojas could be an attractive trade chip for the Phillies, who will look to make upgrades before the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline.