Here’s why Victor Rojas is leaving big-league broadcasting to run Double A Frisco
The safe route for Victor Rojas would have been to remain as the lead play-by-play broadcaster for the Los Angeles Angels for the 2021 season.
The 2020 season wasn’t easy for him and others in his position as an independent contractor who didn’t have an work for half the season. Once MLB teams hit the field, they did so for only 60 games.
For as much uncertainty as there is heading in 2021, the sense is MLB teams will have more of a season and broadcasters will have more games to call.
Minor-league teams, though, continue to operate amid the unknown. Teams at Double A and lower will start their seasons later than normal and likely won’t play the full slate of games.
Fans, the lifeblood of minor-league clubs, might not be allowed in their normal droves.
But if pandemic baseball taught Rojas anything, it’s that he needs to be with his family more, so last week he bowed out of his Angels TV gig and on Monday was hired as the president and general manager of the Frisco RoughRiders.
Rojas, who lives in Trophy Club and was a Texas Rangers radio broadcaster from 2004 to 2008, admits that he is taking a chance. It’s one worth taking, though.
“As far as challenges go, the same could be said for Major League Baseball, right?” Rojas said. “As a guy who’s dependent on games being played on the field, I have no idea what’s going to happen this year. For me, it became one of those things I thought about as far as do I roll the dice and end up with another 60-game schedule?
“I think we’re all under the microscope, if you will, from a business perspective when it comes to baseball.”
Rojas’ deal with the RoughRiders includes language that could eventually give him a chance for an ownership stake in the franchise headed by Chuck Greenberg. Rojas, 52, has worked in the minor leagues before and believes he can get up to speed again quickly.
Frisco has dealt with difficult financial realities caused by having no season in 2020 despite the franchise’s place as one of the most successful in the minor leagues. Dr Pepper relinquished ballpark naming rights, and finding a new partner is one of Rojas’ top priorities.
The goal for 2021, Greenberg said, is for the RoughRiders to regain some traction in the community and financially, and return to full speed. He’s optimistic that minor-league baseball will be played this year — Frisco again will serve as the Rangers’ Double A affiliate — but isn’t sure what the season will look like and how many fans will be allowed to watch in person.
But rather than circle his wagons, Greenberg saw an opportunity to make an unorthodox hire and make Rojas the face of a franchise that has no control over roster decisions.
They first talked about the idea over lunch three years ago. The started talking again in early in the offseason when the job opened.
“The idea has always been, and what’s always worked, is to have outstanding leadership with the person running the franchise day to day being the real face of the franchise,” Greenberg said. “When I thought about Victor, I thought here’s a guy who’s got that major-league confidence and cache and swagger and yet who would never big-league anybody because he’s such a wonderful humbled and grounded person with a such a deep love of people, first of foremost, and the game as well.”
It wasn’t until just after the new year that Rojas and Greenberg started discussing terms on a contract.
“From that point forward it just became something that came together quickly,” Rojas said. “I had every intention of going back. When push came to shove and Chuck ultimately offered and I spoke to other members of the ownership group, it ultimately made it an easy decision to stay home.”
And that, above all else, is what convinced Rojas to alter course even though he had been thinking about staying home more for a few years. He will have more family time and more more hands-on time with his family’s start-up apparel business, Big Fly Gear.
Home is where he wants to be.
“Everything that everyone has gone through with the pandemic really crystallized my desire to find something, whether in the Metroplex or elsewhere, where we can all be together on a full-time basis,” he said.
“As much as it stunk to be home and not getting paid last year, I was home until July with my family and I got to experience things with my kids and my family that I hadn’t because our job is during the summer months. That’s when it really sunk in for me that I wanted to do something that would keep me home on a full-time basis.”
