Euclides Rojas (born August 25, 1967) is a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n-born coach and player development official in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. He was most recently the bullpen coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Career

Rojas was a right-handed

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

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 The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

, and eventually emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Rojas played independent league baseball in 1995 before being acquired by the

Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fran ...

in his adopted city of

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

. Rojas pitched for two seasons in the Marlins' system — including service with the Triple-A

Charlotte Knights The Charlotte Knights are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. They are located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and play their home games at Truist Field, which opened in 20 ...

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 In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

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 . In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, he was briefly a member of the Marlins' MLB coaching staff, serving as interim bullpen coach. He spent the season with the Pirates as Latin American pitching coordinator, and rejoined the Pittsburgh system in . Rojas spent six seasons (2005–) as the Pirates'

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n field coordinator of instruction.'' Baseball America 2010 Annual Directory,'' p. 61 He was the bullpen coach of the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

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 The 2003 American League Championship Series (ALCS) was played between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees from October 8 to 16, 2003. The Yankees won the series four games to three to advance to the World Series, where they lost in six g ...

and won the 2004 American League pennant and the

2004 World Series The 2004 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2004 season. The 100th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National Leag ...

References

External links

: 1967 births Living people Sportspeople from Havana Defecting Cuban baseball players Boston Red Sox coaches Charlotte Knights players Florida Marlins coaches Gulf Coast Marlins players Major League Baseball bullpen coaches Palm Springs Suns players Pittsburgh Pirates coaches Portland Sea Dogs players Pan American Games gold medalists for Cuba Baseball players at the 1991 Pan American Games Pan American Games medalists in baseball Goodwill Games medalists in baseball Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games {{Cuba-baseball-bio-stub

Career

See also

References

External links