Mets shorthanded while Daniel Vogelbach tries to work out of slump
New York Mets' Daniel Vogelbach looks on from the dugout during an MLB baseball game against the New York Yankees at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Mets have elected to play shorthanded for the past week for the sake of an attempted mental reset of sorts for Daniel Vogelbach, who is trying to re-find his swing amid a deep slump.
Vogelbach hasn’t been in the lineup since June 7. Manager Buck Showalter hasn’t used him off the bench, either, including twice passing on a chance to use him over light-hitting utility infielder Luis Guillorme in the late innings of one-run games.
“Buck wanted to give me maybe a mental break. Not necessarily gonna use it that way,” said Vogelbach, who detailed his extensive behind-the-scenes work with hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Hinske. “I feel like when my swing is where it needs to be and I’m swinging the bat the way I know I’m capable of swinging the bat, I can make this lineup better. . . . The ultimate goal is to get back to being the Daniel Vogelbach that I’ve been for my career. And that’s hitting righthanded pitching and helping this team win.”
Vogelbach is hitting .203 with a .343 OBP and .297 slugging percentage this season. In the month prior to this hiatus, he had one extra-base hit and one RBI.
Showalter declined to say when Vogelbach would return or if he was available Wednesday against the Yankees out of fear that such information might give opposing teams an advantage. He also said the Mets didn’t put him on the injured list — which would allow them to call up a replacement and not have a short bench — because “there’s nothing wrong enough with him.”
“If you went down everybody in here, you could find something physically challenging,” he said.
In the meantime, Vogelbach has been trying to fix “just something small that can lead to me not getting the ball in the air like I like to get the ball in the air,” he said.
He cited his hard-hit rate (same as last year) and his walk rate (better than seasons past) as reasons for optimism.
“It’s not the first time that I’ve struggled in my career and it’s not going to be the last,” he said. “This game is tough. It’s the reason that it’s so hard to play. Then you start putting pressure on yourself because you want to produce and you want to perform because the ultimate goal is to win.
“When you feel like you’re not at your best and you’re not helping the team win, it sucks. I don’t think anybody in this league will tell you that struggling is easy. But the only thing to do is work. I feel like that’s what we’ve been able to do.”
Extra bases
Reliever Stephen Nogosek elected free agency. The Mets had outrighted him to Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday, but he was allowed to refuse that assignment . . . Elieser Hernandez has a setback in the form of “side discomfort,” the Mets said, but he has resumed throwing. He has been out all season with a shoulder injury.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
