Luke Voit

The Mets have released first baseman Luke Voit, as indicated on his player page at MLB.com. He’s once again a free agent.

Voit inked a minor league pact with the Mets back in February. While he doesn’t have the requisite service time to qualify as an Article XX(B) free agent and thus secure a standard opt-out date five days prior to the start of the season, his minor league contract included an opt-out this past weekend.

The 33-year-old Voit had a tough go of it in Mets camp, tallying 41 plate appearances but batting just .118/.220/.235 with a homer, a double and 14  strikeouts (34.1%). That performance, coming off a down season in which he hit just .221/.284/.265 in a small sample of 74 plate appearances with the Brewers made it difficult to envision the former Yankee slugger winning a spot on the roster in Queens.

Voit led all of Major League Baseball with 22 homers in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — part of a brief peak with the Yanks where he performed like one of the game’s top offensive first basemen. From 2018-20, Voit turned in a combined .278/.371/.541 slash with 58 big flies in 905 plate appearances. He was strikeout-prone (26.7%) but drew plenty of walks (11.6%) and had more than enough thump in his bat to offset the penchant for punchouts.

Injuries have since derailed that promising trajectory. Voit tore the meniscus in his left knee during spring training 2021 and underwent surgery. Two weeks after being activated in May, he suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain. Voit seemed to rush back from that injury, returning in under a month, and just weeks later was back on the shelf with pain in his surgically repaired knee. He returned again in August but headed back to the injured list with continued knee troubles the following month. Voit had a healthy but middling season at the plate in 2022 between the Padres and Nationals. His 2023 campaign was slowed by a neck injury.

It feels like longer than three years ago that Voit was a prime-aged slugger coming off a league-leading home run total, but that’s to be expected for a hitter who’s gone through the extensive set of injuries he’s experienced. His spring showing didn’t lend much credence to the idea of a rebound, but Voit demolished Triple-A pitching in limited action last year, hitting .263/.420/.615 (153 wRC+) with 15 homers in just 200 plate appearances between the Brewers and Mets organizations. That at least showed that there’s still some life in his bat, and between that performance and his track record with the Yankees, he should be able to latch on with a new minor league deal elsewhere.

Feb 19: The sides have agreed to terms, per Newsday’s Tim Healey, and Voit has joined the Mets in camp. Healey adds that the contract is expected to be finalized later today.

Feb 17: The Mets are reportedly “moving toward” a minor league deal with Luke Voit, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. SNY’s Andy Martino reported earlier this afternoon that the sides were discussing a potential deal, which would include an invite to big league Spring Training.

Voit, who celebrated his 33rd birthday earlier this week, started the 2023 season with the Brewers but struggled through 22 games with the big league club, hitting just .221/.284/.265 with a 36.5% strikeout rate and just three extra base hits (all doubles) in 74 trips to the plate. That brief stint in Milwaukee was the only big league action Voit saw last year, though he did rake to the tune of a .263/.420/.615 slash line at the Triple-A level in 45 games split between the Brewers and the Mets, the latter of whom he signed on with in June of last year after being released by Milwaukee earlier in the month.

While Voit’s 2023 campaign certainly left something to be desired, he’s also enjoyed his fair share of success throughout seven seasons in the big leagues. Voit made his debut in 2017 as a member of the Cardinals and hit to roughly league average results during a 62-game stint on the club’s bench, though he wouldn’t remain in the organization for long as he was traded to the Yankees in the deal that sent Giovanny Gallegos to St. Louis. That kicked off an incredible four-year stint in the Bronx where Voit slashed a whopping .270/.362/.519, including a dominant showing in the shortened 2020 season that earned him a ninth-place finish in NL MVP voting.

Voit’s tenure with the Yankees came to an end after the club landed Anthony Rizzo in a deal with the Cubs prior to the 2021 trade deadline before deciding to extend him the following offseason. With Rizzo entrenched at first base for the foreseeable future, the Yankees decided to flip Voit to the Padres just before the start of the 2022 season. Voit appeared in just 82 games for San Diego before he was swapped once again, this time to the Nationals as part of the blockbuster that sent Juan Soto to San Diego (where, coincidentally, Soto would eventually find himself traded to the Bronx back in December.)

If the deal is completed, Voit would provide the Mets with a veteran slugger who sports a 121 wRC+ for his career in the majors. While Voit certainly won’t be usurping star slugger Pete Alonso’s role as the club’s everyday first baseman, Voit could provide competition for youngster Mark Vientos for the role of the club’s primary DH to open the season if the deal is completed. All signs in recent months have pointed toward the Mets offering Vientos a chance to establish himself in the majors to open the 2024 campaign, though he’s struggled to a .205/.255/.354 slash line in 274 trips to the plate at this point in his major league career. If Vientos’s struggles continue, Voit’s presence could give the club a veteran fallback option as they try to remain competitive in 2024 while primarily focusing on building for the 2025 season and beyond.

First baseman Luke Voit, who’d been with the Mets on a minor league contract, has exercised an out clause in his deal, tweets Mike Mayer of Metsmerized. Opt-out dates in minor league deals, once triggered, typically give the team 48 hours to either select the player’s contract or release him. Mayer specifies that Voit has already been granted his release and is once again a free agent.

Voit, 32, had a dismal showing with the Brewers earlier this season, batting just .221/.284/.265 — albeit in a tiny sample of 74 trips to the plate. He’s been nothing short of outstanding with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse since signing there, slashing a hefty .264/.415/.643 (155 wRC+) with 14 home runs and a massive 18.9% walk rate in 167 plate appearances. Voit has fanned at a 26.8% clip in Syracuse, which is a clear red flag, but punchouts have always been part of the slugger’s profile, even during his peak years with the Yankees.

That peak, while brief, was excellent. From 2018-20, Voit tallied 892 plate appearances with the Yankees and batted .279/.372/.543 with 57 home runs — including an MLB-leading 22 round-trippers during the shortened 2020 season. His 2021 season was ruined by injuries. A meniscus tear in his left knee during spring training eventually required surgery. He returned in mid-May but made it just two weeks before suffering a Grade 2 oblique strain. Voit raced back from that injury in far quicker fashion than most who suffer an oblique strain of that severity, and within three weeks he was back on the shelf with inflammation in his surgically repaired knee. He returned from the IL once again but was placed back on the shelf in September — again due to knee pain.

Since the end of that outstanding 2020 season, Voit has taken 883 plate appearances — nearly identical to his tally during that three-year peak — and batted .229/.311/.399 (100 wRC+). While he was prone to strikeouts earlier in his career, his 31.7% mark from 2021-23 is considerably higher than the 26.2% clip he posted from 2017-20.

Other clubs will now have to determine whether Voit’s production in Syracuse marks a legitimate improvement in his approach and contact abilities or whether it’s merely some small-sample success against lower-caliber pitching. Someone will surely give him a look, however, even if it’s only on another minor league deal at first. With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, there are very few paths to acquiring additional talent and depth to prepare for a postseason push. Voit’s performance in Syracuse and track record of past performance will get him another opportunity.

The Mets announced that they have signed first baseman Luke Voit to a minor league deal. He will join Triple-A Syracuse and be active tomorrow.

It’s been a rough season so far for Voit, 32, who got into 22 games with the Brewers but hit just .221/.284/.265 while striking out in 36.5% of his plate appearances. That led to Milwaukee releasing him back to the open market.

Voit’s production has been tailing off for a few years now, but this latest drop was the steepest. In the shortened 2020 season, Voit led the majors by hitting 22 home runs despite the truncated schedule. He slashed .277/.338/.610 on the year for a wRC+ of 153. But in 2021, he made multiple trips to the injured list and hit a diminished .239/.328/.437, wRC+ of 112. The Yankees effectively replaced him with Anthony Rizzo while he was hurt and then flipped Voit to the Padres going into 2022. He only lasted a few months in San Diego before going to the Nationals as part of the Juan Soto deal, finishing the year with a combined .226/.308/.402 line and 102 wRC+. He was non-tendered and joined the Brewers this year but dropped even further, as mentioned above.

Despite that downward trend, it’s not too surprising that the Mets are willing to take a shot. For one thing, they just lost their primary first baseman, as Pete Alonso is going to be sidelined for the next three to four weeks after getting hit by a pitch on his wrist. In the past few days, they’ve used Mark Canha and Mark Vientos to cover the cold corner. Canha is primarily an outfielder who hasn’t played the position regularly since 2015, while Vientos is a rookie who has hit just .167/.233/.256 through his first 86 major league plate appearances.

If Voit can get into a decent groove at Syracuse, he could perhaps force his way back into the picture. Doing so could push Canha back into the outfield or Vientos to the minors, depending on how things play out in the coming weeks. The other appeal for the Mets is the low cost. Since Voit was released, the Brewers remain on the hook for the remainder of his $2MM salary. Even if the Mets call him up to the big leagues, they would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Brewers pay.