Hell Freezes Over: Johan Rojas is batting over .300 and drove in a run with a perfectly executed safety squeeze

You want to know how good things are going for the Phillies right now? Johan Rojas is hitting over .300 and they’re executing safety squeezes like it’s 1985.

Let’s start with Johan Rojas.

For most of last season, it felt like his bat was permanently stuck in spring training mode. Fast forward to May 2025, and the kid is slapping base hits, laying down perfect bunts, and actually helping the Phillies win games.

The glove was never in question — he could probably rob a home run blindfolded — but now that the bat has caught up, we’re seeing what the front office hoped for all along.

Now let’s talk about that Johan Rojas safety squeeze.

Just gonna drop this here real quick pic.twitter.com/Vzi8J9yovI

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 8, 2025

You rarely see it anymore, especially from a team built around thunder bats like Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

Yet there it was this week in Tampa: Rojas dropping a textbook bunt to score J.T. Realmuto and help blow the game wide open in a 7-0 win over the Rays. The Phillies pulled off small ball — on purpose — and it worked.

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A safety squeeze! Executed. Clean. Efficient.

The type of thing that would’ve felt laughable two years ago, when the game plan was all about launch angle and ruining player’s careers (Scott Kingery). For whatever reason, the Phillies were so lost and basically went out thee chanting “see ball, hit ball hard” instead of actually playing baseball. That’s why this is so refreshing to see, right?

There’s no official stat for squeeze attempts in MLB’s data arsenal, but we dug around a little. The Phillies have four bunt hits this season (tied for 10th in the league) and just three sac bunts (T-16th).

So it’s not like they’re out here bunting every other inning. That makes the Rojas squeeze stand out even more. It’s a wrinkle, a curveball in a game plan full of power swings and launch angles — and it worked.

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This kind of execution from the bottom of the lineup is exactly what makes a good team dangerous. When your No. 9 hitter is producing and your team is capable of winning without relying solely on the long ball, you’ve got something brewing.

After last night Johan Rojas is batting over .300 with a HR and 9 RBI in his last 15 games.
On the year, he’s hitting .303 with a .751 OPS to go along with a home run and 11 RBI. He’s also swiped five bags and scored 10 runs in 66 at-bats. 

The Phillies have now won eight of their last ten. They’re getting elite pitching (Cristopher Sánchez just dropped six innings of one-hit ball), and the offense has scored seven or more runs in seven of their last ten games. Schwarber’s reaching base in literally every game, Bryce is heating up, and even Alec Bohm’s bat is starting to flash.

Cristopher Sánchez shoves, Taijuan Walker K’s seven in three innings, Phillies blank Rays, 7-0

But maybe the biggest surprise? It’s not Harper or Wheeler or Turner making headlines.

It’s Johan Rojas — and a squeeze bunt.

And if that doesn’t tell you this team is dialed in, I don’t know what will.

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