The Rockies still hope Michael Toglia, their 2019 first-round draft choice, will eventually turn the corner. It hasn’t happened yet. Indeed, Toglia has gone in the wrong direction this season.
Wednesday, the first baseman/right fielder was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque. The Rockies recalled utility player Hunter Goodman to take Togila’s place on the 26-man roster. Goodman will play primarily corner outfield and first base, but he can also fill in at catcher.
Toglia, 25, leads the Rockies with four home runs but has far too many empty at-bats, especially for an offense that has struggled mightily during Colorado’s 6-18 start. He’s slashing .106/.143/.362 with a strikeout rate of 40.8% (20 strikeouts in 49 plate appearances).
Manager Bud Black said the Rockies hope that sending Toglia down will allow him to “take a step back and sort of regroup.”
“He’s a power hitter, so there’s got to be a slugging percentage in there, and there has to be an on-base component in there, too,” Black said before Wednesday night’s game with the Padres at Coors Field. “The strikeout rate and the on-base rate kind of go hand in hand. This year, specifically, there is a big gap there. He’s walked one time.”
Selected 23rd overall out of UCLA, Toglia made his Rockies debut in 2022, but he has yet to prove he can handle big-league pitching consistently. His career slash line is .174/.231/.331, with 10 home runs in 91 games. His career strikeout rate is 35.5%. The major league average is 22.6.
Goodman, 24, has impressed at Triple-A so far this season. In 91 plate appearances, he’s hit seven home runs while slashing .298/.352/.690. His strikeout rate is just 20.9%. But, of course, that was against Triple-A pitching.
Goodman, a fourth-round pick out of Memphis in 2021, made his major league debut on Aug. 27 of last season. After a hot start, he cooled off and finished with a .200 average (14 for 70) with one home run in 23 games.
“The last two weeks, I’ve had some really good at-bats, so I’m turning in the right direction,” Goodman said of his stint with the Isotopes. “I’m hoping that continues up here. I have to mainly trust the process. I feel like toward the end of last season (with the Rockies), I got too results-driven. I was going up there hunting for a base hit instead of just going up there trying to hit the ball hard.”
Black added: “Hunter has been swinging the bat very well at Triple-A, and, hopefully, when he’s in there, he can give us a little jolt.”
The Rockies are comfortable putting Goodman behind the plate if veterans Elias Diaz and Jacob Stallings need a break. Goodman started at catcher in seven of the Isotopes’ 22 games.
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“This year, we really put our eyes on Goodman and we said, ‘Hey, this guy can catch,’ ” Black said. “We caught him more in spring training this year than last. And down at Triple-A, he’s caught well. He’s done a good job. So we have no problem catching him in the major leagues.”
Injury updates. Veteran first baseman/right fielder Kris Bryant, who is out with a low-back strain, was eligible to come off the 10-day injured list on Wednesday, but he’s still not close to playing baseball again. Bryant is working in the weight room, doing rehab exercises, and getting treatment but not doing any baseball-related activities. While doctors have examined Bryant, Black said the injury does not require surgery. Bryant, 32, is hitting .149 with one homer through 13 games this season.
Left fielder Nolan Jones said his back feels “much better” than it did Tuesday night, but he’s still a number of days away from returning to the field. Jones departed Tuesday’s game after a sixth-inning at-bat when his lower back locked up.
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