Daniel Vogelbach’s Contract Is a Steal

Because of his size, it’s easy to plug Daniel Vogelbach into a home run or bust hole when he’s at the plate. But the Mets designated hitters’ profile projects more as Mark Canha than Pete Alonso.

The Mets decided to pick up the $1.5 million option on Vogelbach’s contract for the 2023 season. It’s a steal of a contract for what Vogelbach could provide to the Mets next season.

Vogelbach is one of the best at making contact in baseball. Last season, Vogelbach swung and missed at pitches in the zone just 62 times out of 448 pitches. That 86.2% rate ranks 69th (min. 250 PA) and higher than Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman, and Brandon Nimmo.

The only two Mets that ranked higher were Luis Guillorme and Jeff McNeil.

Now Vogelbach is unlikely to be an MVP candidate like the first two and Nimmo is a better all-around player for sure but the Mets were able to get a competent major leaguer player that fits their profile for the baseball equivalent price of a 1997 Toyota Corolla.

Vogelbach simply finds a way to get on base. A .238 batting average is coupled with a .360 on-base percentage because of a 15.8 walk percentage, putting Vogelbach in the 99th percentile of all players in the stat.

It’s not a one-year fluke either. He walked 16.7% of the time in 2021, 14.7% in 2020, and 16.5% in 2019. All are in the 90th percentile or higher.

Vogelbach has one of the best batters eyes in baseball. He ranked 16th with a 20.4 out-of-zone swing percentage in 2022.

He works counts, gets on base, and crushes right-handed pitching. What more can you want from a platoon-type player? Per Dollars-WAR, Vogelbach was worth $11.8 million last season. Now he’ll make 13% of that.

With a team that is planning to spend on the premier class of free agents, the Mets will need to take discounts on players anywhere else they can get. Vogelbach certainly provides that and if he can put up his 2022 numbers again for the Mets, he could be the steal of the offseason.