Daniel Vogelbach smiled broadly as he thought about his good fortune.
In the span of 24 hours, the slugging designated hitter picked up 19 games in the standings. He went from playing out the string for the irrelevant Pirates to joining the first-place Mets, a group he described as “special.”
“To be wanted by a team that has one goal in mind, and that’s to win a World Series, it makes you feel good and it makes you want to play,” he said on Saturday, shortly after arriving in Queens, before the Mets hosted the Padres at Citi Field.
Vogelbach wasn’t just wanted, but needed. The Mets, looking for an offensive jolt, acquired the 29-year-old left-handed hitter in exchange for reliever Colin Holderman on Friday night. They hope Vogelbach can provide pop from the left side to bolster their anemic DH spot, which has begun to serve as an unwanted anchor weighing down the batting order.
Mets designated hitters owned a .662 OPS this year entering Saturday and were batting just .216, paltry numbers that had to be addressed. While Vogelbach will likely only start against right-handed pitchers — he doesn’t hit lefties well at all, posting a .141 batting average against them, and didn’t start on Saturday against southpaw Blake Snell — he does that very well. He has an .896 OPS against righties, along with 12 home runs in 173 at-bats.
“Just going to bring it every day, and that’s kind of what I focus on,” he said.
For his career, Vogelbach has a .745 OPS, and a slash line of .213/.336/.408. They are similar to his numbers this season (a .769 OPS and .228/.338/.430 slash line), which appealed to the Mets. He hits for power and gets on base a lot. In fact, the newcomer has the lowest swing rate in baseball at 31.9 percent. At times, his patient approach has gotten him in trouble, but it does work, too.
“It’s just something that I pride myself in, getting the pitch that I want to hit and not the pitch the pitcher wants me to hit,” he said. “I have a plan every time I go up there, and I just firmly believe that if I stick to my plan, good things will happen.”
Vogelbach is thrilled about the opportunity. He got the chance to reach the playoffs for the first time in his seven-year career last season with the Brewers, and is hoping to return to the postseason this October with the Mets.
“This last two, two-and-a-half months of the regular season, every game matters,” he said. “I got a little taste of it last year being with Milwaukee and playing meaningful games for the first time in my career. I feel like once you get a little taste of it, you want more and more, and I’m excited to be here.”
Vogelbach has never appeared in a game at Citi Field, but he does have a comfort level with the Mets. He played with Tomas Nido and Francisco Lindor on high school travel teams and teamed up with Taijuan Walker on the Mariners. After the trade went down, he spoke to former Met Jay Bruce, a close friend and one-time teammate, about what to expect.
“This is about as big leagues as you can get,” was Bruce’s advice. “This is what you dream of when you’re a little kid. This is the big leagues.”