Dodgers honor Rojas’ late dad

Miguel Rojas learned about his father’s death about 40 minutes before first pitch in Toronto on April 7, and less than a day later he was back in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup for the April 8 series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays. His father, Miguel Rojas Sr., had suffered a heart attack at home in Venezuela and did not survive. (mlb.com) The quiet part of the story came after that: Dodgers players wore cap tributes for Rojas during the April 8 game, turning a regular road afternoon into a clubhouse-wide gesture. Reports from that game said several players had “MR” written on their caps for him. (sports.yahoo.com) Rojas had been scratched from the April 7 game after taking the call from his family, and manager Dave Roberts was not sure that night whether Rojas would even stay with the club for the rest of the road trip. By Wednesday morning, Rojas had decided he wanted to play. (mlb.com) He explained that choice in family terms, not baseball terms: his relatives had “raised me up” and sacrificed so he could be a player, and he said showing up every day was part of the pride they taught him. The funeral for his father was held in Venezuela on April 8 while Rojas was in Toronto. (mlb.com) The timing made it harsher. Earlier on April 7, before the emergency, Rojas had spoken with his father about playing in Toronto for the first time since Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, when Rojas hit the game-tying ninth-inning home run that helped the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays. His father had sent him a photo and said he was excited to watch. (mlb.com) That helps explain why the cap tributes landed so hard with fans. Rojas is not just a reserve infielder on this roster; he is a 37-year-old Venezuelan veteran, a clubhouse voice, and the player who re-signed with Los Angeles on a one-year, $5.5 million deal in December 2025 after one of the biggest swings in franchise history. (espn.com) (mlb.com) Inside the room, teammates had already marked the moment the night before. Dodgers broadcaster Stephen Nelson reported that after the April 7 win and series clinch, the team kept Rojas’ own post-series toast tradition, then prayed for the Rojas family back at the hotel. (sports.yahoo.com) (ktla.com) So the hats were not a random visual. They were the on-field version of what the Dodgers had already done off the field: keep Rojas inside the group while he was grieving, on a day when baseball in Toronto and a funeral in Venezuela were happening at the same time. (mlb.com) (sports.yahoo.com) The result on April 8 was a 4-3 Dodgers loss, but the detail people carried away was smaller than the scorebox. A few handwritten letters on a cap turned a private death into a visible sign that one player was not standing alone. (mlb.com) (sports.yahoo.com)