Miguel Rojas, 37, Announces His Retirement After Dodgers' NLCS Loss to Brewers

LOS ANGELES Thursday, October 15, 2026

The final out of the Los Angeles Dodgers' season was also the final out of a 13-year major league career. After Milwaukee's 6-4 win in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series completed a sweep at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, veteran infielder Miguel Rojas told reporters in the home clubhouse that he is retiring, effective immediately. He was 37, and by his own telling, he had known for a while that this ending was coming — only the exact night was in doubt.

Rojas had entered the season saying 2026 would be his last, with one exception he allowed himself during the year: he would consider playing on if the Dodgers won the World Series and completed a three-peat. Milwaukee removed that option on Thursday. With no title to chase, Rojas made the decision final where it made the most sense — in front of his teammates, in the room where, by every account, his value to the Dodgers was always largest. Sports Illustrated reported a visibly emotional Rojas telling reporters, in brief: “This is it.” The full Game 4 recap is at our pennant story.

A career that came full circle

Rojas began his major league career with the Dodgers in 2014, a young Venezuelan infielder getting his first chance in Los Angeles. He was then traded to the Miami Marlins, where he spent eight seasons — the long middle of his career, much of it on teams playing out the string, where he built a reputation as a dependable defender and a professional's professional. Before the 2023 season, Los Angeles traded to bring him back.

The second stint became the defining one. Rojas was a key clubhouse leader on the Dodgers teams that won back-to-back World Series championships in 2024 and 2025, and he played some of the best baseball of his career while doing it. In 2024 he hit .283 with a .748 OPS across 103 games — production well beyond what a glove-first veteran infielder is expected to give — and he kept producing an OPS above .700 in each season of his return.

The swing Dodgers fans will keep

If one moment owns Rojas' legacy in Los Angeles, USA Today and FOX Sports both point to the same one: Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, top of the ninth inning, Dodgers down to their last outs against Toronto. Rojas hit the game-tying home run off Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman. Los Angeles went on to win the championship in extra innings, and Rojas — a player who hit 61 home runs in a 13-year career — had hit the biggest one available to anyone that season. Players with ten times his power numbers retire without a swing like that.

His career totals tell the shape of the player: 1,401 regular-season games, 1,048 hits, 61 home runs and 386 RBIs, per FOX Sports' summary. Those are survivor's numbers. Rojas was never the star of any lineup he played in. He was, repeatedly and on purpose, the player managers trusted in the innings and moments when a mistake would be fatal.

His last game, and what he did in it

Thursday's finale had a quiet cruelty to it. Rojas started Game 4, batting seventh, because Milwaukee opened with a left-handed pitcher and his bat against lefties had been a genuine asset all season. He never got an at-bat. Milwaukee changed pitchers before his spot came around, manager Dave Roberts pinch-hit Max Muncy for him, and his career ended after an inning and a half of defense, in a clean uniform. FOX Sports noted the detail; Dodger Insider's account describes Roberts giving Rojas the floor afterward, and Rojas addressing the room with his jersey still white, thanking the teammates around him.

According to the accounts from that clubhouse, Rojas said the last four years in Los Angeles changed his life. He also made clear he does not intend to leave the organization — he wants to begin the next side of his baseball life with the Dodgers, in a player development or similar role, a transition USA Today reports is expected to begin this offseason. For a player whose greatest value was always teaching a clubhouse how to behave like champions, that is the most logical second act in the sport.

What the Dodgers lose

Los Angeles loses more this winter than a utility infielder. The Dodgers' back-to-back championship run was built on stars, certainly, but championship clubhouses are held together by veterans who set the temperature of the room — and by every account from inside it, Rojas was that player for the 2024 and 2025 champions. His retirement, announced the same night the three-peat died, closes the era in a way a transaction never could. The next Dodgers team will be built without him in it, on the field and in the room.

He leaves with two World Series rings, the biggest home run of the 2025 postseason, and a career that started and ended in the same uniform, 12 years apart. Very few players get an ending that neat, even on a losing night. Full Dodgers and baseball coverage continues on the Previously sports front and in our Game 4 evening report.