Baseball: Cookie Rojas gives his thoughts on MLB, helps out at Juan Romero camp in Naples

The Juan Romero baseball camp entered their 30th year this summer.

Juan Romero, who recently retired as the coach at St. John Neumann High School this past spring, says he loves the interaction he has with his players, but to “never say never” when it comes to coaching at the high school level again.

Romero decided to bring in an old friend, someone he met while pitching batting practice for the Kansas City Royals in 1977 -- five-time All-Star and former Angels and Marlins manager Cookie Rojas -- to speak to his campers Wednesday.

At 79 years old and two years removed from doing analysis for Miami Marlins radio, Rojas has stayed sharp and continues to study the game.

He’s not sure how long the Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez will be able to catch at his size. He thinks the Marlins are in a difficult rebuild period after trading away top players and not having much talent in the farm system.

He also believes the game might be becoming too soft and too safe.

And that his native country of Cuba since the U.S. has softened relations with it, could go back to having a Triple-A team like it did when the Havana Sugar Kings from 1954-60, and bring it back as a baseball stronghold.

"I think its going to take time," Rojas said. "They keep talking back and forth. There's a lot of talent on the island and if they can make money here then they can go back and help their families. It's a shame because we had a Triple-A club so we had one more step and then we make it. I hope to heck that something will happen so everything will be normalized and we can build it back up."

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has brought back up the idea of using the designated hitter in the National League -- the American League has had it since 1973.  Rojas wishes it’d go away completely.

“They have to find a way to even it out,” Rojas said. “Use a DH in both leagues or get rid of it and have the pitchers in the lineup in both leagues. I would rather have the game the way it used to be.”

Rojas said pitchers aren’t working on their batting and they need to. The game itself was meant to have everyone who’s on the field to bat. but salaries are so high now, it would cost too much for a player to go down for half a season. 

Same goes for sliding rules.

“You can’t slide into the second baseman to try and break up a double play,” Rojas said. “There are so many little things I disagree with personally.”

The other thing Rojas would change is from the owner’s perspective. One bad season and an owner can be pressured into firing their GM. Baseball clubs need continuity, though.

“You must give them time to be with their team, but everyone wants to win now," he said. "Look at the whole. If the manager doesn’t have any players, then is it their fault? They must have time to teach and develop relationships.”

Even with the changes to the game and no longer being connected to a major league club, Rojas wouldn’t mind getting back into the game.

He still trains players one-on-one and gives the occasional keynote address, but “if someone called and said they wanted help, I’d go help them out.”