To place any one label on Daniel Vogelbach would be missing his whole value
From the outside, the Pirates’ designated hitter seems like a clubhouse guy, a fun-loving teammate who can keep spirits high on a given day. That may be true, but sometimes naming someone a “clubhouse guy,” though not meant as an insult, shortchanges the player himself.
Outfielder Ben Gamel has known Vogelbach for five years now, since they played together with the Seattle Mariners’ organization in 2017. If any Pirate has an idea of what makes Vogelbach tick, it’s him, and when asked about Vogelbach being a “clubhouse guy,” Gamel immediately pushed back.
“I think first and foremost, he’s more than a clubhouse guy. He’s a competitor,” Gamel said. “That guy competes at the highest level every day, and he wants to be the best. Yeah, he loves hanging out with the boys, and we all have a good time and keep it light, but when it comes game time, we’re all ready to compete.”
This may seem nitpicky, but the point is that any joking around Vogelbach does with his teammates is a means to an end. He knows a good-spirited clubhouse can directly lead to better results on the field.
“I don’t think it matters where you’re playing or what team you’re on or where you may fall during the year,” Vogelbach said. “There’s not a lot of things you’re in control of, but being a good teammate, being a good person, you’re in full control of that every single day. It’s something I pride myself on — trying to be a good teammate, trying to be a winner, just being a leader each and every day.”
See, even when asked about being a good teammate, it’s linked with being “a winner,” in Vogelbach’s eyes.
On a team level, all of the Pirates would like to be doing more winning than they have the last few seasons, already sitting with a losing record 2022.
Vogelbach, at least, has done his part. Before being placed on the 10-day injured list Tuesday to deal with a nagging hamstring injury, though the Pirates don’t expect it to be a lengthy stay on the shelf, Vogelbach was slashing .241/.321/.457 on the season. He still has the third-highest OPS+ on the team at 122, and leads the Pirates with six homers.
He’s also done so while bouncing around the lineup. Vogelbach has spent 19 games as the Pirates’ cleanup hitter and 12 as their lead-off man. Though it is abnormal to see a 6-foot, 270-pound player leading off, he’s been fantastic when asked to hit first, with a .298 average and an .880 OPS in those 12 games.
Manager Derek Shelton has basically said that Vogelbach has fulfilled what the Pirates wanted from him. When the team hired first-year hitting coach Andy Haines this summer, he came with an endorsement for Vogelbach, since the two had worked together in each of the past two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The fit was right. Vogelbach trusts Haines’ vision, and for good reason. When he first joined the Brewers in September 2020, he took off to end the season, hitting .328 with four homers in 19 games.
“I’ve said it repeatedly, I think the world of Vogey in multiple areas,” Haines said in spring training. “… He played very well with the Brewers when we acquired him back then in ‘20, and I thought last year, he was producing very well offensively.”
Beyond the on-field production, though, the Pirates have taken quickly to Vogelbach the teammate. As the designated hitter, he spends a good deal of the game watching what’s going on, constantly paying attention and thinking along with Shelton. In some ways, he has become an extension of the coaching staff.
Rookie Diego Castillo has experienced that first-hand. Earlier this season, the Pirates were facing a right-handed starting pitcher, and Castillo was held out of the starting lineup. Sometime in the middle innings, a left-handed pitcher got up in the bullpen. Castillo had hit .278 with an .825 OPS this season against lefties, and Vogelbach knows that’s Castillo’s specialty.
Vogelbach told him to get ready, to go take swings in the cages to make sure Castillo is prepared.
“Now he always comes to me when there’s a lefty in the bullpen,” Castillo said. “If I’m on the bench or whatever, he says, ‘Hey, be ready. There’s a lefty in the bullpen. Go hit right now.’ He told me something that I never was thinking of.”
Vogelbach is a hitting coach at times, too. He and Gamel know each other’s swings well at this point and both hit left-handed, so they frequently give feedback to one another before or after at-bats to get a good handle on what the opposing pitcher is trying to do and how they can combat it.
That doesn’t stop with Gamel, though. Vogelbach says he tries to learn his teammates’ swings to make sure he knows what he’s talking about if they ever ask for help.
“I think especially being the DH, I’m always watching the game,” Vogelbach said. “And then always if someone comes up and asks your opinion, you want to have an educated answer for them. So yeah, I definitely watch a lot of our guys’ at-bats and always try to stay locked in on our guys and be able to help them move forward in a sense of a bad at-bat to a good at-bat, day by day.”
Added Shelton: “Well, Vogey’s so damn loud that he is [a hitting coach] for everybody because everybody can hear him. The one thing that really stands out — and Vogey came as advertised — is that he pays attention to pitching, to sequence, to what the ball does. He’s got a really good awareness of the strike zone. When he takes a ball and he’s pretty adamant about it, it’s usually a ball.
“If you’re around Vogey at all, he’s very effusive in wanting to talk about it. Because he’s loud, everybody hears it. It’s like having someone on there that’s constantly talking about the approach.”
And yes, part of Vogelbach being a good teammate is knowing when to let loose. He bought an LED light that hooks up to the clubhouse speaker. When the Pirates win, the clubhouse lights go off as music blasts and the disco lights flash.
That side of Vogelbach, though one that fans and outsiders feel drawn toward, is just a small part of what he brings to the table.
Put simply, the Pirates are a young team that still needs a veteran presence to help get them through the 2022 season, both to improve the on-field team and to show young players how to approach day-to-day preparation.
Vogelbach has been on winning teams before, and over the years he’s cultivated a magnetic way of pushing his team forward, setting an example for a professional ballplayer. With the Pirates, he’s found a group of teammates that are willing to listen to and follow him. Even for however long he is on the injured list, that remains true.
“You don’t want to come across as coming in being the guy that’s trying to change everything or change everybody,” Vogelbach said. “But I mean, yeah, I think that being around a little bit, it’s just how I am. I always pride myself. You can control being a good person and a good teammate and it’s something I try to take full control of.”
