Daniel Vogelbach is a big guy. Greg Brown and Bob Walk, the Pittsburgh Pirates play-by-play announcer and color commentator on TV, both said he is one of the biggest leadoff hitters they’ve ever seen. 

At 6-foot and 270 pounds, he is one of the larger guys to sit atop the order in the league.

But the role has shown to be a perfect fit for the big guy. 

He is batting .316, the third-highest average on the team, slugging .654, the second-highest on the team, and is tied for third with five walks this season. 

Vogelbach knows how to get on base, and when you have Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes coming up to bat after you, that’s all you need to know. 

He leads the team in runs scored with nine, three more runs than the second-place player. The importance of having a leadoff hitter is sometimes overlooked in the MLB, and it certainly had been overlooked at times in Pittsburgh.

The Pirates had a tendency to rotate guys in and out of the leadoff spot, showing the lack of trust and talent they had to fill the role there. 

Vogelbach was a late offseason signing for the Pirates, they inked him for a one-year contract on March 15, and is a veteran on Pittsburgh’s young roster.

He was drafted by the Cubs in the second round of the 2011 MLB Draft. He saw a lot of offensive success in the minors, working his way to Chicago’s 40-man roster after the 2014 season. 

He lost over 30 pounds to make himself a better defensive player during this time period. 

Vogelbach was traded in the summer of 2016 to the Seattle Mariners without having played a MLB game for the Cubs. He was called up to the majors in September of that same year and had one hit in 13 plate appearances.

He played in the MLB for some of April and once in May, but spent a large portion of the season in Triple-A. He spent the second half of September in the majors, and he finished his 2017 season hitting 214/.290/.250 in 31 plate appearances.
In 2018, he appeared in 37 MLB games for the Mariners and had another disappointing stint in the majors, although he did reach base a little more, batting .207/.324/.368. 

Vogelbach represented the Mariners in the 2019 All-Star game. Midway through the season he was batting .238/.375/.505. He had 21 home runs and 51 RBIs. But, he struggled after the All-Star break, only hitting .162/.286/.341 with nine home runs and 21 RBIs. 

Vogelbach had a dismal start to the 2020 season, only recording five hits and 11 walks in 64 plate appearances. This prompted the Mariners to designate him for assignment, where the Blue Jays acquired him for cash considerations. 

He only appeared in two games for Toronto before designating him for assignment.

Vogelbach was picked up by the Brewers where he’d find his biggest success yet. In 67 plate appearances, he hit .328/.418/.569. He had four home runs and 12 RBIs. 

In 2021, he played like he did on every other team to start, hitting .216/.323/.386 with seven home runs and only 16 RBIs through 67 games. He would be put on the 60-day IL after this stint, returning to finish the season batting .219/.349/.381.

So, why am I telling you all this?

Well, Vogelbach has not seen consistency in his career. He bounced up and down between the majors and minors for a while. He has been tossed around to a couple different teams, where he was placed in several different places in the batting order.

The Pirates have found his spot though, and Vogelbach continues to kill it in said spot. He has the perfect lineup behind him to spur the offense, a lineup that’ll be even more dangerous if Yoshi Tsutsugo can find that batting magic he had last season.

It’ll be exciting to see how far this shaky team can go with a 1-2-3 order of Vogelbach-Reynolds-Hayes. 

Statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference