Marlins surprisingly DFA former Dodgers top prospect from Miguel Rojas trade

Miguel Rojas has been in the news perhaps a bit more than he wants to be lately. It started with a mini-tirade from former Marlins teammate Jazz Chisholm, during which he called out Miami's veteran leadership for stifling young players, and fans quickly picked up on the fact that he was talking about Rojas. Without naming names, Chisholm said Rojas was, "not a good captain, not a good person, not even a good athlete at this point.

Of course, Rojas had a response. He, just like everyone else, knew Chisholm was talking about him, and said, "Everybody's entitled to have their own opinion. [...] But you saying that I'm a bad person when you don't even know me, that's what bothers me."

Chisholm and Rojas haven't been teammates since 2022; Rojas was traded to the Dodgers in exchange for then-top prospect Jacob Amaya during the offseason. Amaya peaked at No. 19 in LA's pipeline, but never saw major league playing time with the Dodgers. He got his shot in the big leagues with the Marlins last season, when he appeared in four games but didn't make a splash, batting .222/.222/.222.

On Wednesday, the Marlins acquired Emmanuel Rivera from the Diamondbacks after he didn't make the Opening Day roster and was DFA'ed, then Amaya got the corresponding push.

Marlins DFA former Dodgers top prospect and Miguel Rojas trade piece Jacob Amaya

Before leaving the Dodgers, Amaya hit very well over 49 games in Double-A and then less well in 84 games in Triple-A in 2022. He landed with the Marlins' Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville for 2023, where he played in 128 games and hit .252/.345/.407. It was good enough to warrant a call up in June, but he hit poorly and was sent back down. He only got three games in at Triple-A this year before yesterday's DFA, hitting .182 across the board.

It feels likely that another team will pick him up and try to recover what made him a top prospect with LA, but at this point, with Rojas having a home run and an .833 slug off the Dodgers' bench already this year, the Dodgers can pretty much declare this trade won.