The Seattle Mariners used the waiver wire to begin October, claiming 1B/OF Michael Toglia from the Cincinnati Reds. The 28-year-old switch-hitter missed much of the 2026 season when he dislocated his right shoulder while making the draft. Preparatory surgery revealed a torn labrum as well, which led to season-ending surgery after just 10 games in Ohio.
Toglia was well regarded by many (this author included) out of Gig Harbor High School in 2016 and especially again after a strong career at UCLA. The Colorado Rockies made Toglia the first round in 2019, selecting him 23rd overall on a .307/.410/.573 slash line and a cool cornerback cut. A tall, athletic 6’5, Toglia took on some of Evan Albo’s descriptors as a prospect, noting his outstanding athleticism at first base was almost wasted, certainly expressing his desire to be used in the outfield to increase his utility.
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While that’s what happened in the development through the Colorado system, some of the same reasons White encountered also arose. Toglia’s strikeout rates in the pro ball average around a 30% punchout rate despite the clubs prodigious home run totals before his big league debut in 2022. That debut was difficult at the age of 20, and he found little consistency afterward. A .198/.275/.384 career line with 42 home runs in 1,095 plate appearances is good for a .286 wOBA, pretty disturbing on its own. But Toglia’s home park his entire career has been Coors Field, except for the 10 most home games at Great American Ballpark with Cincinnati, meaning the most park in the MLB, the MLB wasn’t enough to support the numbers for him. The difficult nature of it is that Toglia’s 69 wRC+, combined with the difficulty of wandering out of Coors Field and some poor ratings at first base to boot, meant Toglia’s fWAR of -3.5 ranks as the worst in MLB since 2020.
So why are you asking?
Toglia has a profile very similar to former Rockies OF/1B Nolan Jones, whom the M’s acquired in the Luis Castillo trade with the White Sox. Both players have the overlapping talents of Luke Raley and Lazaro Montes, both of whom have shown strong big league success thus far in their careers. In addition, Toglia’s tools and compositions popped up significantly after his midseason demotion in 2024, a time when his Baseball Savant profile looked remarkably promising.
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Toglia has tremendous raw power and has shortened his swing in the past couple of seasons to reflect that he doesn’t need a lot of hacks to deliver extensive damage. His strikeout length over the past two seasons has been in league average, while his bat speed and strikeout rates have been near the top of the league. Add to that the fact that Toglia doesn’t rush too much, and most of the hitters from that swagger and patient approach, which boosts the rate in a naturally beating form, a ton of Luke Raley is seen on the left side, with a lot of Mitch Garver on the right.
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And yet, Toglia has not yet been eager to combine all these characteristics into a large capacity. His best year, including the 2024 amendment, still culminates in a 99 wRC+ with 25 homers and 10 steals in 116 games and 458 plate appearances. Seattle can likely see the form of big footy still with Toglia, and few like to offer a higher top 100 prospect as much as Jerry Dipoto, but for the local kid to do well he will need to find a way to make much more in-zone contact in the bigs, no longer with the benefit of the game’s best ballparks to be ashamed of.