Jake Rogers hit the first walk-off homer of his career on Friday night, and by the time it landed in the left-field seats, it was already the most stable thing that had happened to him in three weeks.
Two outs, ninth inning, White Sox down 4-0 to the Mets and somehow tied anyway. Rogers fouled off an elevated first pitch from Mets reliever Jefry Yan, then turned on a 98-mph fastball and pulled it 401 feet to the power alley in left, a two-run shot that beat New York 6-4 at Rate Field.
It was Yan’s first career home run allowed. It was Rogers’ first career walk-off. And it was only the fourth uniform he’d put on since Detroit designated him for assignment on July 28.
Four teams. Twenty-one days.
Detroit let him go after nine seasons. Baltimore then traded a minor-league arm to get him, played him three games, and flipped him to the Red Sox as a piece of the deal that sent Adley Rutschman to Boston. Boston designated him for assignment eight days later to clear a roster spot for the catcher he’d just been traded alongside. The White Sox claimed him off waivers on Aug. 14, and in doing that, Rogers broke a 122-year-old MLB record for most teams played for in a short stretch — four teams in 21 days, a mark that had belonged to a guy named Frank Huelsman since 1904, when it took him 42 days to do the same thing.
I play in a Tuesday night rec league in Hoboken, and I have had more job security this month than Jake Rogers has had all year.
He debuted for the White Sox on Aug. 15 at Comerica Park, against the Tigers, the team that had just let him go, and got a standing ovation before his first at-bat. Manager Will Venable called him “a real pro” who “understands how to navigate hitters, how to utilize pitchers’ strengths.” That’s manager-speak for “we needed somebody who didn’t need a map to the clubhouse.”
That part matters more than the record-book trivia. Rogers didn’t just survive four organizations treating him like cap-space filler. He landed in a city he’d never played for, in a uniform he’d worn for less than a week, and delivered in the ninth inning of a one-run game like he’d been doing it his whole career.
Watch it here:
https://twitter.com/MLB/status/2090988951225938031
The White Sox trailed by four before Miguel Vargas, Randal Grichuk, and Colson Montgomery hit three straight homers in the sixth to tie it, which is the only reason Rogers got the chance to be the hero. That part gets skipped in the highlight package. He didn’t do this alone. Doesn’t matter.
He still had to hit the pitch.
“It’s been a long time, since the Minor Leagues, since something like that happened,” Rogers said after the game. That’s either the most humble reaction to a 401-foot walk-off on record, or a guy who has genuinely forgotten what stability feels like.
It was the White Sox’s 10th walk-off win of the season, and it pushed the White Sox, who are running away with the AL Central, to a 4.5-game lead over Cleveland and Minnesota. Chicago is pairing Rogers with Drew Romo while Kyle Teel recovers from injury, which means the catcher who couldn’t hold a roster spot in Boston is now half of a catching tandem for a first-place team.
Somewhere in Boston, somebody’s still trying to explain the Rutschman trade that got him bounced from Boston to a fanbase that just watched the throw-in win a game for somebody else three weeks later.
