A flirtation with perfection validated Gio Rojas’ cross-country gamble.
The Colorado native spent his freshman season at Lakewood High School, before his family decided to move to Parkland, Florida, so the promising left-hander could incubate in a top-tier baseball state. Rojas landed at powerhouse Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which has big leaguers and, at the time, was coming off a perfect season and its third straight state championship.
Rojas wondered how he would stack up there, but his worries dissipated into the humid Florida air in his first start for the Eagles as a sophomore: A complete game with 18 strikeouts, with the lone baserunner coming via a two-out hit in the final inning.
“I initially didn’t want to go to that school, because I was intimidated by their dominance,” Rojas said. “They were 29-0, (multiple-time) national champions, literally stacked with the best players in Florida. Little sophomore me was pretty darn scared.
“But we moved to Florida because I wanted to be challenged, and looking back on it now, it taught me a lot. I searched out the best, I got the best, and as a result, I had to perform my best. I was thrown into the deep end and I was able to swim my way around.”
Rojas swam his way to a first-round draft pick when he was selected at No. 16 overall by the Texas Rangers on July 11. He’s the highest high school pitcher drafted and the first first-round pick out of high school in Rojas plans on signing with the Rangers sometime in the next week. His bonus is expected to be right around the slot value of the pick, $5.05 million.
He’s going to buy his parents, Luis Rojas and Angela Meza, a house with his bonus. Both parents gave up their jobs in Colorado and had to find new ones in Florida as part of the move.
Gio and his older brother Eze Rojas — a former star at Lakewood who now — got their baseball genes from Luis, who was born in the Dominican Republic and grew up in New York City. Luis, an outfielder, out of TCU in the 15th round in 1981 and reached Double-A.
“It was really difficult (to keep up with travel ball expenses), and really challenging at times, and often Angela and I had to (divide and conquer) to drive the boys all over to get to their practices and games,” Luis Rojas said. “We had a lot of help from several different coaches along the way.”
Rojas has ‘always been an outlier’
One of those coaches was Dale LeMonds, who coached Gio on his first travel team at age 8.
LeMonds was a Division III All-American pitcher and runs the youth baseball club Parker Jets from the field he built in his backyard at his home in Parker. He says Rojas immediately stood out during the young ballplayer’s original tryout for the Jets.
“After his first throw from left field to second, I turned to Luis, and I said, ‘This kid’s going to be a pitcher, and he’s going to make a lot of money one day,'” LeMonds recalled. “You could just tell from his arm action, his arm slot, how his arm was just really whippy. He had those fast-twitch muscles as a pitcher and as a hitter, too. He’s always been an outlier.”
In Rojas’ travel ball debut at a tournament in Arizona, the 8-year-old opened the game by walking the bases loaded on 12 straight balls. Then, he proceeded to K the next three batters on nine straight strikes.
And back in Colorado, he quickly made a name for himself on the youth tournament circuit as one of the top arms in the state.
“The first time I saw him at Ulysses (Sports Complex) in Golden, imagine our surprise when he came out in a pool play game,” said Arvada West High School head coach Danny Vais, who coached Elite Baseball, one of the top club teams in Rojas’ age group. “A couple walks and passed balls by a kid struggling to catch him is the only reason we won.
“He was a dude from Day 1, and his athleticism was off-the-charts. He was always dominant, always top-end velo, always the pitcher to compare to.”
By the time Rojas got to Lakewood as a freshman, he was playing on a national travel team, and it was apparent that LeMonds’ forecast from six years prior was on the fast track to materializing. He appeared in nine games for the Tigers that year, posting a 3.84 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 27-plus innings.
All of that Colorado backstory led to the breakout in Florida, where Rojas emerged as the top-ranked high school pitcher in the nation. He was one of four Colorado arms to get drafted out of high school this year, joining Grandview’s Ethan Wachsmann (third round by the Twins), Mountain Vista’s Keaton Maiorana (15th round by the Brewers) and Eaton’s Gunnar Garrison (18th round by the Orioles).
Developing a big-league makeup
Rojas pitched in five games in his debut season at Stoneman Douglas, allowing just two earned runs over 21-plus innings, with 41 strikeouts to three walks. He was a complementary arm on Stoneman Douglas’ stacked pitching staff as the Eagles won a fourth straight title in Class 7A, Florida’s largest classification.
Stoneman Douglas head coach described Rojas as “a stud the minute he walked in here,” and Fitz-Gerald’s first impression was that Rojas was going to get drafted in the top five rounds.
But Rojas blew past that projection thanks to an incessant work ethic and by competing in top national competitions during the summers.
“He has the makeup (of a big-leaguer) and he has the character piece,” Fitz-Gerald said. “There’s not may guys like (Phillies all-star pitcher) Jesús Luzardo or (Red Sox outfielder) Roman Anthony (both of whom played for me at Stoneman Douglas), but Gio is one of those guys. And Gio is much better than Jesús was at this time in his career.”
Rojas’ fastball sat around 92 mph as a sophomore, but he added heat over the past couple of years, and was 93-96 mph this year while topping out at 99. The 6-foot-4 southpaw also has a high-spin rate slider, a curveball, a changeup and a cutter that made him nearly impossible to hit at the high school level.
En route to earning in 2025, Rojas emerged as Stoneman Douglas’ ace by going 13-0 with a 0.72 ERA and 120 strikeouts. He took the dominance to another level this season, going 11-1 with a 0.58 ERA and 124 strikeouts. All told in his the Coloradan was 28-1 with a 0.65 ERA and 285 Ks to just 36 walks.
He was central in Stoneman Douglas extending its championship run to six straight titles, including throwing 6 2/3 innings of one-hit ball in this year’s championship, where Rojas was prevented from a complete game only because he hit his pitch count. Fitz-Gerald rolled the dice by saving Rojas for the title in the single-elimination state tournament.
“Normally, I would never leave my horse in the pen (in the semifinals),” Fitz-Gerald said. “But my seniors were really adamant, like, ‘Don’t worry about Friday, Coach. We’re going to get Friday. We just want Gio for Saturday.’
‘It was lucky enough to work out, and then he went out and just absolutely dominated in the title. Venice was No. 1 in the country at the time, and only one guy got to second base, and the hit he gave up was a blooper just over our shortstop’s glove.”
As Rojas is set to begin his pro career, LeMonds predicts he’ll be an MLB All-Star. And Fitz-Gerald thinks Rojas will fast-track himself to Arlington.
“I think two-and-a-half years from now, he’ll be a big leaguer,” Fitz-Gerald said. “He’s a product of his own work ethic. And God gave him a thunderbolt for an arm.”
