Achi news desk-
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Miguel Rojas says he was upset by criticism from former Miami Marlins pitcher Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Rojas, 35, spoke on “The Chris Rose Rotation” podcast released Tuesday and responded to comments made by Chisholm on “The Pivot Podcast” released March 19, hosted by former NFL players Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor.
Chisholm, 26, said his first three major league seasons from 2020-22 were “probably the worst three years of my life” and discussed how he felt Marlins veterans mistreated younger players like him. Chisholm specifically referred to someone as “the captain of the team” without mentioning that player by name.
“Even though they suck, they’ve been there for nine, 10 years and the team calls them the captain of the team, but they’re not a good captain, they’re not a good person,” he said. Chisholm. “You’re not even a good athlete right now. You’re here and you’re bringing down the young guys who are supposed to be good.”
The Marlins did not have a captain in those years but Rojas was considered the unofficial captain. Rojas played for the Marlins from 2015-22, then was traded to the Dodgers in January 2023.
Rojas said he learned of Chisholm’s comments from members of the media, his agent and relatives.
“You can think that I suck at baseball, that I’m not a good player, that I’m not a good leader,” Rojas said. “But when you cross a line and say I’m not a good person and I’m just there because, he probably thinks I’m telling someone I’m supposed to be there and, ‘Keep me here please. so I can be a major league baseball player for 10 years,’ that’s what worries me.”
Chisholm, a 2022 All-Star, said he was unhappy during his first three seasons with the Marlins because “you had vets that hate, hate what you do and who you are.” Chisholm, an avid shoe collector, discussed one way an unnamed veteran got under his skin.
“My first year in the big leagues, I get to the locker room, I have 20 pairs of cleats,” Chisholm said. “Everyone knows I’m a big shoe guy. I have about 20 pairs of cleats, seven or eight pairs of shoes to go to practice in, and I have 100 pairs of batting gloves – all custom. Everything is custom. Nothing is normal. Nothing is white. Nothing is black. Everything has a color.
“I think within the first week one of my vets broke my cleats, poured milk in my cleats and threw them in the trash and said, ‘Those shoes are ugly, bro. Get new ones.’ I don’t want to say what I did on camera, but I was definitely not the rookie who took it that easy. I definitely went and threw his entire locker in the trash. That’s me. You’re not going to come over here and mess with the things I worked hard to design myself.”
Without referring to that specific incident, Rojas said he was unhappy that Chisholm revealed things that happened in the locker room by stating “that’s our house” and “there are things that should never leave the club.”
Rojas said the Marlins’ veterans were simply trying to hold younger players accountable for their actions.
“Do you think they are the first players ever to be rookies in the league and be treated like this?” said Rojas. “You have to know that there are players before you who have been treated the same way or worse. That doesn’t give them a reason to go on a podcast and talk about the veteran players and what they did to them.”
Chisholm credited Marlins manager Skip Schumaker with changing the culture upon his arrival last year, helping Miami earn its first playoff berth in a pandemic-free season since its 2003 World Series title.
“He got rid of everybody who didn’t want to do it like that,” Chisholm said. “And that’s how it’s supposed to be. You’re not supposed to have a vet trying to bring the rookies down.”
Rojas was asked if he would be willing to sit down and talk to Chisholm to try to work this out sometime down the road.
“As soon as you have that kind of presumption on me and the person I am, I’m not up to having a person in my life or anything that thinks I’m a bad person or a piece of (garbage),” Rojas replied.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
