LOS ANGELES — Miguel Rojas has never been shy about what it means to wear “Dodgers” across his chest. At Los Angeles Dodgers FanFest this weekend, he talked like a guy who genuinely loves the grind, the fans, the clubhouse, the whole thing. He said walking back into Dodger Stadium “definitely make[s] you turn the page,” even while “it’s impossible not to think about the great moments of 2024, 2025.”
And yet, in the same interview, Rojas sounded like he had a knot in his stomach. Because while the World Baseball Classic is supposed to be the dream stage for guys who grew up imagining their country’s flag on their chest, Rojas is stuck watching from home.
The reason he can’t go
According to the Los Angeles Times, Rojas won’t be able to play for Venezuela in the 2026 WBC because he couldn’t obtain insurance coverage tied to his contract, a problem tied to his age and recent lower-body injuries.
This is the part that makes fans’ heads spin: it’s not baseball reasons. It’s paperwork, risk, and money. The article notes that insurance is required to protect a player’s salary if he’s injured in the tournament, and that Rojas’ 2026 salary is $5.5 million.
Rojas posted his disappointment in Spanish on social media, calling it “a real pity” that he can’t represent Venezuela, adding that “on this occasion, age wasn’t just a number.”
The tournament itself runs March 5–17, with games in places like Tokyo and Miami, and the championship game scheduled for March 17 at LoanDepot Park.
“My only question is why”
At FanFest, Rojas didn’t hide how much this hit him.
“Definitely disappointed,” he said. “I’m not happy with the way that things are kind of like thrown at us at the last time. I didn’t know that my chance to go represent my country for the first and only time probably as a player was going to get caught because of an insurance problem.”
Then he went right at the part that’s been boiling across Latin baseball circles.
“My only question is why it’s just with our country like Venezuela, Puerto Rico… We’ve seen a couple Dominican players,” he said, before adding, “I don’t see that happening with United States and… with Japan.”
He was careful about how he framed it. “I’m not trying to attack anybody,” he said, “but at the end of the day it feels like it’s just happening with the players that want to represent their country from Latin America.”
That’s Rojas speaking from the heart. And whether you agree with his read or not, you can hear the raw disbelief underneath it.
“It’s really hard… to not have the opportunity to put my country on my chest… and not having the opportunity to do it because I’m 37 years old,” he said. “That’s not right. I don’t feel it’s right because if I can still play in the big leagues for the Dodgers, why not [play] for my team in Venezuela and represent my country?”
He’s not the only one
This is bigger than one Dodger, and honestly bigger than one country. The Los Angeles Times noted that Rojas is the latest Dodger to step out of WBC consideration, joining Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages, and Andy Ibanez, with more decisions possibly coming.
It’s also hit star veterans around the league. A recent report described Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa as unable to participate after an insurance provider ruled them uninsurable.
This is the uncomfortable truth: the WBC is a celebration, but it’s also a collision point between national pride and club economics. Teams don’t want to eat millions because a player tweaks something in a high-intensity tournament. Players don’t want to gamble their livelihoods. And when the insurance door closes, there isn’t always a creative solution waiting on the other side. We all recall the unfortunate incident from the last WBC when newly acquired Dodger Edwin Diaz (then a Met) was injured in a postgame celebration and had to sit out the entire season.
And, it’s not just Latino players who’ve felt the sting of the insurance adjusters. Clayton Kershaw was denied coverage in 2023 after committing to play for Team USA. Probably one of the reasons he’s back on Team USA this year is the fact that the experience was taken from him from the bean counters last time around.
Why it stings more for Dodgers fans
Dodgers fans have a special relationship with Rojas now. That’s just reality. This is the guy who hit the game-tying homer in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2025 World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, a swing that turned a whole season into a heartbeat moment. And yes, the actual ball from that homer sold at auction for $156,000.
So when he tells you he waited “20 years in professional baseball to have that moment,” you believe him. When he says he’s walking around Rome and strangers thank him for the homer, you believe that too. And when he says the WBC situation hurts because it might have been his “first and only time probably as a player” to represent Venezuela, that lands with weight.
Especially because the Los Angeles Times reported Rojas has said 2026 will be his last MLB season as a player. That turns this from “maybe next time” into “maybe never.”
The timing is brutal
Another layer: this is the second straight WBC he’s missed. In 2023, he was on Venezuela’s roster but withdrew after Gavin Lux tore his ACL in spring training, which increased Rojas’ importance to the Dodgers that year. Now it’s not even a baseball decision. It’s an insurance dead end.
And if you want to see just how quickly things are moving, MLB Network is set to reveal all 20 WBC rosters on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT). That show is basically the sport telling you, in real time, who gets to live the dream and who gets left holding the receipt.
What the Dodgers still get in 2026
Rojas made something else clear at FanFest: he’s not walking into 2026 as a nostalgia act.“I’m not done yet,” he said. “I have to play another year and I have to continue to prove myself and prove everybody that I can still play.”
He talked about the club’s constant push to improve, how “older players need to continue to get better,” and how the internal competition creates “a good vibe… in our clubhouse.”
That’s the good news in all this. The WBC “no” is painful, and it’s going to keep being a conversation around the tournament until something changes. But for the Dodgers, the on-field bottom line is simple: Rojas is back, he still cares like crazy, and he still sounds like a guy ready to do the unglamorous work that keeps a contender sharp.
The WBC won’t get his glove this March. The Dodgers will, and if there’s one thing we learned in October and November, it’s that you don’t underestimate what that means.
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