The Pirates announced Wednesday that they’ve hired Daniel Vogelbach as a special assistant to their hitting department (relayed by Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). While there’d been no word that the 32-year-old had ended his playing career, it seems he’s moving on to his post-playing days.
Vogelbach played parts of nine seasons in the majors. The lefty-hitting first baseman/designated hitter earned an All-Star nod with the Mariners amidst a 30-homer showing in 2019. That was his best full season until 2022. Vogelbach signed a one-year free agent deal with Pittsburgh that came with a modest $1MM base salary. It was a shrewd pickup, as he hit .228/.338/.430 over 75 games. The Bucs moved him early in trade season in a swap for reliever Colin Holderman, who projects as one of their better leverage arms this season.
After landing in Queens, Vogelbach hit .255/.393/.436 for the stretch run. He played well enough for New York to bring him back for the ’23 season, though his numbers dropped to a pedestrian .233/.339/.404 slash. Vogelbach appeared in 31 games early last year for the Blue Jays in what appears to be his final major league action.
If he is officially retiring, he’ll do so with a .219/.340/.405 batting line over 602 big league contests. Vogelbach hit 81 homers and drove in 246 runs while suiting up for five teams. He clearly made a strong impression on the Pittsburgh front office and coaching staff during his few months there as a player. MLBTR sends our best wishes to Vogelbach on the next stage of his career.
What’s he going to do? Teach people how to eat?
No, special assistant….he’s going to finish the plate for all of them.
@Chubby 2025 for sure
no, how to waddle around the bases
If they’re waddling around the bases that means they got on base. That’s an improvement.
He’s fat. He waddles. He eats all the food. Why do you like him?
He gets on base.
@TheFatMan 3 good one
What did he do, bang your wife?
No, he ate her.
Ah, no wonder she left
Hard to imagine him in a suit and tie
To my relief, Vogelbach was not named the new team nutritionist.
Darn…there goes Ross’ back up plan.
Hopefully he doesn’t sink the ship!
Jolly Roger is going down
Special assistant to who and/or what? The chef preparing the clubhouse acai bowls?
Mac and cheese, but yeah
Vogelbach has stated in interviews that acai bowls are his go to pregame meal. To me, the fact that he seemingly considers them healthy is hilarious. He deserves every pound on his bulbous gut.
Ooooh I can only imagine what your ‘gut’ looks like.
Eh I approve. Fun times in the club house coming.
Infield and base running coach.
Dude is a legend. He scored a run while hopping injured from third against my Diamondbacks.
Vogey-Bach baby!
Nothing wrong with having him assist vs instruct today.
None not at all it’s a great chemistry move for the clubhouse too.
Yeah. They said this about Cutch, too
Other than dance in the dugout last season, it seems like he did nothing where culture was concerned. Guys were still jogging out grounders and pop flies, still admiring long fly balls from home plate, still waving at pitches with a white flag while overmatched at bat, still clutching handfuls of seeds while out in the field
Yeah. Veteran leadership. Hooray.
I’m sure this guy will come in and change the non-hustling, losing is fine, aloof nature of the clubhouse.
Cutch had a ready year that kept his career going. Gotta hand it to him that he did over end up retiring himself
Should be a good weight balance to a couple of young lanky pitchers on team flights. He gets the whole left side and squeeze the other 2 into the right side seats. Pilot will know that it will be a safe flight.
Vogelbach will always have 2019. More than any of us can say…
He’ll bring new meaning to “Clear the deck! Cannonball coming!!””
Fat People…the last frontier in terms of being able to make fun of someone and it’s totally acceptable.
But in 2025 fat shaming looks very bad. People who engage in it should be ashamed of themselves. I suspect most of them are ugly and smell bad.
Whatever JoeBlob33
Pirates Hire Daniel Vogelbach As Special Assistant
Show the Pirates on ow to properly steal a base!!!
Guy never got caught stealing
Hefty_Orioles_Fan
A bunch of classless posts. Players, their family and friends read these.
Agree. My comment was pointing that out, albeit lacking that tone.
label me classless then. Your opinion matters even less than that of the famous and friends of his that read these comments
Agreed. I couldn’t care less about the players’ feelings. They can look at their bank statements for solace. Have to thank owner and player greed for that.
If they hit the gym instead of the comments section they wouldn’t be fat disgusting slobs.
And the friends family are they going to go… What? He’s fat? Omg!!!! I never realized it until I read these comments.
What? There’s mean tasteless trolling people on the Internet? I though internet comment sections were safe places.
You’re classless. (TheMan is ironic I take it.)
So TheMan3 is “classless” because he posts his opinion on a public message board about public figures—professional athletes—and doesn’t care about opinions. He’s not making personal comments, mind you, but taking issue with the Pirates franchise and their hires, or the professional abilities of players or management
To you, this is “classless”
Right. And your name, “JoeBob,” speaks volumes, too. Perhaps some background in the ideas of libel and slander are in order as well as a refresher course in what public message boards and similar fora/discussion sites entail
Want classless? Head on over to a Yankees or Mets thread
Go to bottom of comments and give me my thumbs up. If I earned it.
You tell em JoeBlob33
Why else would anyone even click on this article, except to see the very humorous and classless posts?
The internet is a classless place, following the example of “leaders”, “bloggers”, “influencers”, “reality” TV jerks, etc.
Really surprised the Lousy GM shapiro and his lackie didn’t sign Vogelbach again….
They were interested…and “in” on discussions….but lost out to the Pirates.
I was wondering, Thanks for clearing that up.. 🙂
No doubt Pennsylvania’s lower door dash taxes played a part in the decision.
Please tell me he was hired as a conditioning coach!
Vogelbach did draw walks at a rate significantly above average. For someone with such a low batting average and who opposing pitchers probably did not fear pitching to, that is quite an accomplishment. Perhaps he is being brought in to help batters, e.g. Cruz, with plate discipline and strike zone recognition.
Please, no more attempts at humor or being witty.
When you are voted the commenter leader, I will abide by your rules
Just some of us would prefer adult conversation and insight. Granted it is rare these days but some of us still have hope.
The very fact that this “ news” garnered an article with MLBTR is quite likely due to the fact that staff found it somewhat humorous or noteworthy, too
These types of moves take place almost every day in the 4 major sports leagues. I doubt there are enough writers here to pen such articles otherwise.
“adult conversation and insight”
This is the internet, the exact wrong place for that.
He certainly does know his strike zone. He is a man that is so full of life all the time that his mannerisms can seem bigger than they are. In the dugout you never see him sitting down. He was called out many a times on a pitch out of the zone . and I think that came from what I was just saying about his mannerisms. If he made the slightest shoulder shrug on a call I think umpires took it as if he was showing them up. My only critique of his last at bats with the Jays – too much was going on inside his head and just like little league baseball he just wasn’t swinging hard enough.. Glad you staying in the game Vogey! You can offer a lot of batting knowledge.
Buff: It’s hard to sit when doing so would pop your zipper. As a man with no neck, I can see why the umps thought he was shrugging his shoulders.
He’s getting the kitchens ready so the Pirates can make a run at Vlad Jr. He knows what it’s going to take to keep a man of that size fed.
All you fat shaming jerks…post your pics. Come you genius shredded manly men anonymously posting…dude was a professional athlete and now is gainfully employed in his chosen field. You’re classless.
Bless your heart.
Most of the posters that comment on his weight have been people who are unemployed and failures on 600lb Life.
Damn, I was looking forward to his career in Japan hitting 40 bombs per year while making some fantastic commercials
Quite literally the Pirates biggest off season addition
Vogey has the distinction of having zero stolen bases and zero caught stealing in his career. When he was a Mariner, I got to see him regularly and he seems like a great guy. Now that he’s hung up his cleats, he potentially could really explode weight wise.
Nah. There’s Ozempic. Is it a banned substance in MLB?
This solidifies the Pirates as my 2nd favorite team.
What…Venus de Milo wasn’t interested???
Danny freaking Buuuurgers out here hitting roooopes!!!
He has hit more triples than I ever could. (1)
How else would they know where the good chicken and waffles place is in each town?
Vogelbach is Pete Alonso’s future.
Was he the one that slid into second base only to discover that his ball had gone over the fence? He was very good at drawing bases on balls. Guess he figured it was one way to cut down on running the bases.
“Special assistant to their HITTING department”! The qualifications and bar being lowered seems be a recent trend for many positions in this country. What next, Jordan Lyles as pitching coach?
Jordan Lyles got Hurdle Huntington fired. He wasn’t really better in Milwaukee but Nutting must have seen that drastic era difference and it was the straw that broke him. Nutting might actually hire him.
I was here to wonder if there was some way that the pirates could use the hiring to save money using him as a temporary fill in for Horwitz?
Won’t save $ playing him at 1b but when they finally fire Cherington Shelton you can see if he wants a promotion in title only. Couldn’t do much worse than Cherington. Couldn’t do worse than Shelton.
The buffet budget just quadrupled
Thats why you are shoeless. Vogey thought it was a Nutting steak.
Hire Rowdy Tellez too! Pirates owe him a favor as far as I’m concerned
Other way around. They took a chance on him instead of bringing Santana back. Kept him not only on roster but starting through awful slump. Should have dfa him in August. He was lazy running bases. Did nothing to deserve a bonus. And he knew unless he was hitting well above average he was never ever going to get that bonus.
His commercial with buck showalter was a classic!
A+ commercial.
Not sure why Cherington needs to hire another coach as he has far too many of these type of auxiliary employees now.
Why does Hague need help?I do not doubt that he has assistant hitting coaches now.
This is in line with the Frazier signing as what do they really add for the Pirates.
I feel sorry for Vogelbach as he hustled and was not as slow on the basepaths as many say.But he definitely needs to drop 70 pounds as it will soon be playing havoc with his health.He had the natural ability to hit a baseball but his career was shortened by not taking of himself.
Disagree 100% He needs to hire 100 more coaches and keep doing so until he finds some that can develop players.
*Definitely will get a thumbs up from TOD
Dream GM-This is part of the problem with Cherington.
He has many many people but number 1,should make sure that they are good at what they do,and that they actually do something,and 2: when he figures it out,actually get one or two more players to actually play for the Pirates.
He needs to focus on the right things not signing a player who he does not need and some sort of assistant when he has several already.
Anyone good is already taken. Needs to keep hiring new blood until he hits on someone. Coaches cost absolutely nothing. Hire away.
This is great news. He’s a great addition to a coaching staff. He is a great person to work with and has a lot of knowledge as a hitter to share. I see nothing negative about this addition at all.
Glad you’re here Vogey
Nothing but a bunch of shy spineless gutless men in here. Not a single Valentine wishes. I know you all love me.
It’s ok. I’m sure your friends the Thai ladyboys sent you flowers and gift cards to Red Lobster
Darling…let’s not quarrel.
It’s humor, Igor. Dream knows that. No quarrel