This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
DENVER -- Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia maintains a tall, confident posture, no matter what comes at him. On Thursday, it was a stuffed toy, playfully tossed at him by third baseman Ryan McMahon.
“He’s gonna be fine,” McMahon said, smiling between pitches.
Toglia was not in the starting lineup on Thursday against the Phillies, the second straight game and third time in the last six. It was a notable lack of starts for Toglia, who fashioned a streak of 106 starts at first base that ended in April. But Toglia leads the Majors with 71 strikeouts -- eight more than the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz in four fewer games.
But the switch-hitting Toglia believes he’ll hit pitches that come at him, more frequently and with more damage than his current six home runs and 19 RBIs. He had lengthy droughts last year, but finished with 25 home runs and 55 RBIs in 116 games. Towering at 6-foot-5 and smiling while being hit by pitched toys from McMahon, Toglia predicted when the slump was going to end.
“It’s going to end tomorrow … or today,” Toglia said.
From last year’s final recall from Triple-A Albuquerque on June 6 to season’s end, Toglia batted .233 and slugged .469 with 21 homers and 47 RBIs. That was enough production to overcome 127 strikeouts in 409 plate appearances. The hoped-for step -- Toglia providing a lift out of the fifth or sixth spot in the order -- went the other way
Interim manager Warren Schaeffer replaced Bud Black on May 11 amidst the worst start in MLB’s Modern Era (since 1900). As Schaeffer put it: “Opportunity abounds in the situation we’re in, and if we don’t look at it like that, shame on us.” It would be especially shameful not to foster a turnaround from Toglia, the team’s 2019 top Draft pick and a key figure in the future plan.
“We came up with a whole plan for him, because we care about him and we’re wanting to get on the right path,” said Schaeffer, who started veteran utility man Kyle Farmer the last two games at first base. “It’s working on specifics with Jordan Pacheco, with Nic Wilson [the hitting coaches]. They’re analyzing numbers. They’re analyzing swing path. They’re analyzing swing decisions.”
Schaeffer planned to use Toglia as a pinch-hitter in the eighth or ninth inning Thursday, but the Rockies didn't produce the man-on situation for him in the 2-0 loss to the Phillies.
Toglia accepts the schooling.
“It’s just a breather, to spend some time getting back on the fastball – getting some barrel accuracy back,” Toglia said. “It doesn’t take a lot of swings. It can click after one or two rounds. You just have to be there when it happens.”
The project is important enough to pull Toglia from the lineup for two games, even though he is slashing .277/.333/.506 at home as opposed to .133/.209/.229 on the road. There are three games with the Yankees left on the homestand, and Toglia believes the breakout is a swing away.
“That’s what keeps me alive – grinding it out when things aren’t going well and your swing doesn’t always feel right,” Toglia said. “You have to know how to produce with your ‘C’ swing. I feel like I’m able to do that right now, and I’m proud of myself for doing that.
“You never know when something’s going to lock back into great and you’re going to take off.”