Daniel Vogelbach is doing everything he can to keep Spencer Horwitz in Triple A

Daniel Vogelbach was initially signed as a non-roster invitee, but having impressed during spring training, he was added to the Opening Day roster as a backup DH to Justin Turner. He had a slow start to the season, where he batted .077 in 8 games. However, since the calandar flipped to May, he's a revelation at the plate and Spencer Horwitz has been forced to stay in Buffalo at his expense. With these improvements, this begs the question should Vogelbach get more playing time?

On Monday morning, Chris Black posted a thread on X with the top 10 best hitters in baseball over the past three weeks. The list features: Aaron Judge, Cleveland's David Fry and Vogelbach was 10th. During this timespan, Vogelbach had a slashline of .385 with a .429 OPS and .615 SLG. He also ranks 1st on the team in exit velocity, (95.5 MPH,) and barrel rate at 11%, which shows more conviction in his swings. Speaking to Blake Murphy on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, Black described Vogelbach as 'close to an everyday bat.'

The main designated hitter, Turner, has been atrocious compared to Vogelbach. After an outstanding April when he batted .300 with 3 homers, 11 RBI's in 25 games, May hasn't been as kind for the 39-year-old. He's batted just .111 with 8 hits and 5 RBI in 21 games. What's the most concerning about Turner is he ranks in the 24th percentile in exit velocity (87.5 MPH) and the 12th percentile for barrel rate (3.5%), which is a stark difference to Vogelbach. His xwOBA has been on a steep decline from .376 on April 27 to .264 on June 2. In conclusion, maybe Turner is on an age-related decline or he's adopted the advice of Guillermo Martinez and Don Mattingly but he simply should ride the bench for the time being to reward Vogelbach with more opportunities, which the Blue Jays have done. Vogelbach who's been batting .375 in the past 7 games with a 1.226 OPS is starting at cleanup and DH'ing Monday night against the Orioles.

It'll be interesting to see how Vogelbach performs in June especially as he's starting more frequently in favour of Turner against right-handed pitching in particular. If he starts to underperform again, then questions will be raised as to whether Horwitz should return to the big leagues considering he hitting .332, with 4 homers and 38 RBI in 54 games. Yet, at this moment Vogelbach, has every right to not just be on the roster but to start as the team's designated hitter going forward.