After spring tear, Toglia gets Opening Day call that leaves family in tears

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- After playing against the Brewers on Monday afternoon, switch-hitting first baseman-outfielder Michael Toglia joined his big family party for dinner. Then Rockies manager Bud Black’s name showed up on the ringing phone.

“I figured it was going to be my status for the season, so I told everybody, ‘I gotta step outside,’” Toglia said Tuesday morning.

Black seized the opportunity to do something he has never done with the news that a player had achieved a goal -- making the Opening Day roster for the first time.

"He figured out really quick that I was with my family and extended family,” Toglia said. “He said, ‘Why don’t you go back and put me on speaker?’”

Who cried?

“Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa … It was a lot of people,” Toglia said.

Toglia, 25, earned a spot on the 26-man roster spot for Thursday night’s opener against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field. The club optioned Sean Bouchard, who entered camp the favorite for left field but never fully gained traction, to Triple-A Albuquerque.

After going 2-for-2 with two runs scored Tuesday in the Rockies’ Cactus League-closing 6-1 victory over the Brewers, Toglia finished an impactful spring with a .286 batting average, five home runs and 13 RBIs.

But this process began with a cold reality check last August, during a series at Tampa Bay. The team’s first-round MLB Draft pick out of UCLA in 2019, Toglia was on his way to sub-par Major League numbers -- .163, 4 HR, 9 RBIs in 152 plate appearances over 45 games. He hit for power in the Minors, but the numbers in Purple Pinstripes were not big league.

“The conversation in Tampa was long,” hitting coach Hensley Meulens said. “It was a smack in the face. ‘We can’t keep going this way.’”

Toglia immediately began work in the batting cage to give himself a better chance from both sides -- especially from the right.

“I agreed with them,” Toglia said. “I didn’t want to keep producing what I was producing, because I knew I was a better player than that. They said there was a change that needed to be made, and I took it upon myself to figure out what I needed to do. They gave me some suggestions.”

The Rockies also sent Toglia to winter ball in Monterrey, Mexico, where he could continue working with Rockies special assistant to the general manager Vinny Castilla, a Mexican baseball legend and a longtime coach and manager in the winter. Hitting with little information on opposing pitchers led Toglia to trust his athletic ability. Being around Castilla took the edge off a rough season and being pressed by his coaches.

“I’m a grown man and it’s a business,” Toglia said. “But Vinny reminded me that it’s still a game and ‘you’re a really good player.’

“It was a lot of fun. Except he kept putting me in the middle seat when we’d fly. I’m like, ‘Why? I’m twice the height of everybody.’”

Castilla kidded because the Rockies cared.

Toglia was no joke in Spring Training.

“It was a process to change some of his rhythm, his load, his separation -- what his hands are doing,” Black said. “He worked awful hard in September, went to winter ball, came back to the States and worked diligently in San Diego [his offseason home].

“We saw some improvements, and it carried over to performance in Spring Training.”

Still, Meulens warned, the changes -- especially from the right -- are a work in progress. It is a powerful but long-levered swing. The Rockies considered going with Bouchard’s simpler swing, which is more conducive to duty off the bench.

But what if Toglia makes it impossible to keep him on the bench? Elehuris Montero has flashed more Major League home run power, but has also had wild production swings. Also, vets Charlie Blackmon and Kris Bryant will need days off, and Bryant especially has battled injury in recent years. Can Toglia, considered a well-above average fielder at first base and solid in right field, avoid the trap of struggling when at-bats are irregular, and eventually grasp starting assignments?

“I believe I’m an everyday guy,” Toglia said. “And I think I’m going to swing my way into that position. But whether it starts out that way or I come off the bench, I’m going to have that mentality.”