Name Euclides Rojas | Role Baseball Player | |
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Similar People Ray Searage, Mark Strittmatter, Nick Leyva, Luis Silverio, Jeff Banister | ||
Euclides Rojas y el béisbol cubano
Euclides Rojas (born August 25, 1967, in Havana) is a Cuban-born coach and player development official in Major League Baseball. On November 24, 2010, he was named bullpen coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Career
Rojas was a right-handed relief pitcher in his playing days. He was the Cuban National Team's all-time leader in saves before he and 12 others left their homeland by raft in 1994, were rescued by the United States Coast Guard, and eventually emigrated to the United States. Rojas played independent league baseball in 1995 before being acquired by the Florida Marlins in his adopted city of Miami, Florida. Rojas pitched for two seasons in the Marlins' system — including service with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights for eight games — before injuries ended his active career. He won four games and lost six, appearing in 29 games with an earned run average of 4.56. He batted right-handed and stood 6 feet (1.83 m) tall and weighed 210 pounds (95 kg) as an active player.
In 1997, he became a full-time coach in the Marlins' system, a post that he held through 2001. In 2000, he was briefly a member of the Marlins' MLB coaching staff, serving as interim bullpen coach. He spent the 2002 season with the Pirates as Latin American pitching coordinator, and rejoined the Pittsburgh system in 2005.
Rojas spent six seasons (2005–2010) as the Pirates' Latin American field coordinator of instruction. He was the bullpen coach of the Boston Red Sox during the full seasons of 2003–2004, a period during which the Red Sox went to Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series and won the 2004 American League pennant and the 2004 World Series.
