HOUSTON — The “break” that Daniel Vogelbach received probably has been mischaracterized.
The Mets’ designated hitter was not just sitting around from June 8-15, when he did not play for six consecutive games. The Mets gave their struggling slugger some time in what he has referred to as “kind of a mental break.”
Physically, though, it was grueling.
“I think I hit more in the week than I did in the whole offseason,” Vogelbach said Tuesday, later clarifying he was exaggerating, but the point was made. “You want results, you’ve got to work. I was dedicated, and I was going to really find my swing.”
In Vogelbach’s first four games since the “break” ended, it appears the swing has been located.
Maybe his mind is in a better place, but Vogelbach, who did not play in the Mets’ 4-2 loss to the Astros, is more pleased with the mechanics that have been tweaked.
He smacked two home runs in his first 47 games this season.
He has crushed two in his first four games after the time off.
He had gone 4-for-12 since resurfacing and had destroyed righty pitching, which has long been his speciality.
In four games in mid-June, he spiked his OPS from .639 to .692.
During the break, he showed up at the field on days off. He pored over video.
He worked with hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Hinske, as well as with bench coach Eric Chavez, all three of whom he thanked. And he adjusted a swing that needed more loft.
Before the break, Vogelbach struggled to get the balls he hit off the ground.
His average launch angle — a measure of the angle at which the ball leaves the bat — registered 10.6 degrees. For reference, less than 10 degrees is a ground ball, and 10-25 degrees is a line drive.
In the tiny sample size since, Vogelbach registered an average launch angle of 22.2 degrees. Included in that sample was his moon shot that snuck over the right-field wall Monday, which exited his bat at 43 degrees.
But that home run wasn’t the at-bat that told the eight-year veteran his swung has come around.
In the eighth inning of the Mets’ win Monday at Minute Maid Park, Vogelbach got a 2-2, hard fastball on the outside corner from Shawn Dubin and lifted it to left field, where it was caught. The process, though, portended advancement.
“To me, that’s when I know that I’m closer [to being happy with my swing] than hitting a home run,” Vogelbach said before the Mets played the Astros on Tuesday, a game in which he was not in the starting lineup against lefty Framber Valdez. “That’s taking a good fastball up and away and being able to shoot it the other way. If I don’t get [under] it, it’s a double down the left-field line.
“Those to me are more hints and signs that I’m getting closer to where I want to be.”
The strong lefty hitter did not want to dive too deeply into the mechanics that have been altered, but he acknowledged his swing needed work. Previously, he had been hitting the ball hard — harder than he ever has, in fact — but the ball kept heading south.
“Just trying to get my swing as repeatable as possible,” Vogelbach said. “That’s the key. In a long season, you can lose things and not realize you lose things.”
Vogelbach has not played the field this season. His roster spot is solely devoted to reaching base and doing damage against righty pitchers.
After a cool couple of months, the Queens crowd had turned on him.
“Contributing means a lot to him,” manager Buck Showalter said after Vogelbach homered and knocked in three runs Monday. “I think everyone’s been pulling for him for a lot of reasons.”
The 30-year-old did not quite declare he has been fixed. But on the other side of the break, he is pleased with the direction his swing is heading in, as well as the direction of his batted balls.
“It’s credit to Barnes and Hinske to take the time and deep dive and Chavy — they really helped me out,” Vogelbach said. “They care, and they want to help, and I want to listen.”