WASHINGTON – The texts from first baseman Michael Toglia, who had been optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque on May 31 to find his swing and confidence, had the words and tone that made Rockies coach Jordan Pacheco see progress.
“‘How are you feeling? What are you trying to do? What have you been doing in the cage that you feel is getting you to the right spot?’” Pacheco said. “There were things I was looking for.”
Toglia not only texted. He showed.
The Rockies recalled Toglia for Monday’s night’s 6-4 victory over the Nationals to restore him to the lineup. They fully expect him to repeat last year, when he returned on June 6 from a two-month option and slugged .469 with 21 home runs over 101 games for the rest of the year.
Instead of continuing the power this year as the Opening Day first baseman, Toglia struggled to a .194 batting average and struck out 81 times in 54 games before being sent down. But last Tuesday, amid a seven-RBI game for Albuquerque against Oklahoma City, Toglia showed he was ready when he crushed a 100.9 mph fastball – well inside off the plate – from Edgardo Henriquez for a Statcast-projected 374-foot, pull-shot grand slam to right field.
“That was the turning point, where I felt, ‘OK, I’m back,’” Toglia said. “I can cover the zone how I need to cover it. The pitch was in, off the plate, and to be able to keep it fair told me that I’ve been doing a lot of things right. I just built on that.”
Toglia celebrated his return with an RBI single in a 1-for-4 performance. He also made a diving stop of Josh Bell’s grounder and flipped to closer Seth Halvorsen to finish the game.
Putting the switch-hitting Toglia’s swings together often isn’t easy. The Rockies tried doing it with him still on their roster. The first attempt at a remedy was to hold Toglia out of the lineup for three straight games from May 21-23 for batting cage work. He tripled upon his return, but the consistency didn’t arrive.
It turned out that the Rockies picked the right time to send Toglia down.
“It was a perfect pitching staff for him to go down to face, OKC,” Pacheco said. “The big thing was he had to get on the fastball and handle the off-speed pitch once he got on the fastball. And they have a lot of guys who have good fastballs. They have more righties than lefties, from what I remember.
“But it was him finding what path and what thought he needed to have to put himself in the right position to succeed every night, or at least have a competitive at-bat.”
In 11 games for Albuquerque, Toglia slashed .273/.353/.568 with three home runs, four doubles and 16 RBIs. Even when Toglia is swinging well, there will be strikeouts. He is not a finished product as a hitter. The Rockies had to determine that Toglia was confident in his foundation, since that would help maintain him through slumps.
“Those are conversations you have with the Triple-A manager, Pedro Lopez, and I trust Pedro big-time,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “I’ve worked with him for a long time. Bill [Schmidt, general manager] had conversations with him. It’s a matter of trusting your people and knowing your players.”
Pacheco said the Rockies will be watching how Toglia “takes one of those borderline pitches that we know he’s really good at doing.” Sometimes that pitch might be a strike that he doesn’t feel he can drive, sometimes not. But does he look confident or rushed?
The Rockies have been historically poor through the early going. But for the past couple of weeks, they have had more games where they’re getting hits throughout the game than not. The lineup has lacked big swings and clutch performances – the type of hitting the club expected Toglia to provide. He believes his time is arriving.
“If you get really good at what you’re good at, I think the strikeouts will go down,” Toglia said. “I’m not the kind of hitter where I focus on just putting the ball in play, not striking out. I’ve tried that before and that hasn’t worked.
“I have to stay aggressive, try to do damage. When that is my mentality, that’s when I’m the best version of me.”