The Luke Voit trade (as it’s now known) barely drew any headlines when it was struck last July between the Cardinals and Yankees. Chasen Shreve was the best-known player in a deal that was viewed largely as two clubs dealing from positions of organizational depth.
Voit got a quick look with the Yankees before being optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, then returned in late August when the Yankees needed an extra bat after Didi Gregorius landed on the shelf due to a heel injury. His first two appearances in his second Yankees stint were of the pinch-hit variety, but he drew a start at first base on Aug. 24 and, in belting a pair of home runs that day, began a rapid ascension. Those two long ball were the first of seven in a 12-game span. By the end of the year, Voit had exploded with a .333/.405/.689 batting line and 14 home runs in just 148 plate appearances as a Yankee.
A huge showing in Spring Training and yet another Greg Bird injury locked Voit into a spot on the Yankees’ Opening Day roster. Meanwhile, Shreve was designated for assignment by the Cardinals late in camp and went unclaimed on waivers. The trade looked like an all-out heist for the Yankees.
Enter Giovanny Gallegos.
The least-known player involved in that July 28 swap, Gallegos didn’t distinguish himself much early in his Cardinals tenure. It’s true that he dominated in 16 2/3 innings with the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate following the trade in 2018, but he made just two big league appearances in St. Louis (1 1/3 innings pitched) last season and didn’t even break camp with the Cards in 2019. When he did arrive in the Majors on April 11, Gallegos limped out to a slow start. He allowed three home runs and pitched to a 4.80 ERA through his first 15 innings this season. While the 25-to-5 K/BB ratio he posted in that time looked encouraging, Voit was at that point sitting on a .282/.382/.575 batting line and 24 home runs in 319 total plate appearances as a Yankee. The Cardinals drew plenty of criticism for the trade (including from myself).
That May 12 cutoff, admittedly, is rather arbitrary. But since that point, Gallegos has been one of the most effective relief pitchers on the planet. Over his past 46 2/3 innings of work, the right-hander has pitched to a pristine 1.35 ERA with a 56-to-7 K/BB ratio. He’s allowed only three home runs in that span — the same number he yielded in his first 15 innings — and held opponents to a .150/.194/.250 batting line (.193 wOBA) through 170 plate appearances.
Since that time, there’s not a single pitcher in baseball (min. 40 IP) who has been tougher to hit than Gallegos. That .190 wOBA is more than 30 points lower than the second-best pitcher in that same span (Boston’s Brandon Workman). He’s surely benefited from some good fortune (.206 BABIP, 90 percent strand rate), but Gallegos is also 11th in the big leagues with a 28.8 K-BB% in that time. He’s whiffed 32.9 percent of the batters he’s faced since that point and walked just 4.1 percent of them.
On the season as a whole, Gallegos is now boasting a 2.19 ERA with 11.8 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and 0.88 HR/9. A 2.58 FIP and 2.70 SIERA support his emergence as a top-tier reliever. His 16.7 percent swinging-strike rate puts him on par with Max Scherzer and places him 11th among MLB pitchers with at least 50 innings thrown in 2019. Statcast indicates that Gallegos is in the 87th percentile of MLB hurlers in terms of fastball spin rate. He’s also in the 87th percentile in expected slugging percentage and the 97th percentile in both expected batting average-against and expected wOBA-against. While some higher-profile relievers have posted similar ERAs with the benefit of some smoke and mirrors, Gallegos’ success doesn’t look to be a fluke.
All of that is particularly good news for the Cardinals, because they can control the late-blooming 28-year-old all the way through the 2024 season. Gallegos won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2021 campaign; he’ll earn scarcely more than the league minimum in both the 2020 and 2021 campaigns. There’s no more volatile asset in Major League Baseball than relief pitchers, but for the time being, Gallegos has dominated enough to flip the narrative on last year’s trade. One can certainly still argue that the Cards would’ve been better off keeping Voit, but St. Louis was by no means left empty-handed and may even have come away from the exchange with a dominant bullpen anchor for years to come.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
It’s Voit and 10 feet of space and then Gallegos
Yes
Not really.
Here is each players WAR from Baseball Reference, Baseball Prospectus, and Fangraphs. Each site uses different formulas with varying outputs, though more often the results are pretty close in values.
Anywho:
Key: (BR/BP/FG)
2019
Luke Voit (1.8/1.2/1.6)
2019
Giovanny Gallegos (1.8/1.7/1.6)
If anything, the feet are in Gio’s favor rather then Voit (so far).
A 1B is still more useful than a reliever.
Plug and play 1B/Dh types are cheaper on the trade market than really good relievers though. They got EE for very little. I’d say the Yankees are in the pole position right now on this trade but there’s a ways to go before we can truly judge it. Relievers are pretty volatile so we’ll see how Gallegos is moving forward.
Voit hasn’t proven to be able to stay healthy. Plus, first base has become a surplus position.
Lol hes had one injury what are you talking about
@jbigz12
Safe to say this is thus far a win/win trade. However, I think there’s more volatility with relief pitchers. I don’t think the Yanks were worried because one thing they do well is collect power arms, try them as SP in the minors and if they fail, convert them to relief pitchers. But RP are streaky. Look at Diaz with the Mets. But I hope GG is the real thing.
One of the things Voit does well is draw walks (career walk rate of 11.8 in 721 PA and about the same in the minors) and hit home runs (.488 in 721 PA). I would not say that his ability is “just that of any 1B/DH). If his power and OBP remain consistent he would rank 6th in OBP among all 1B/DH this year (qualified players) and his slugging 14th. So while his position is designated for poor defenders his bat thus far (2019) is among the best.
Furthermore, he finally settled our desperate look for a 1B ever since Teixeira retired. Bird, Neil Walker, Refsnyder, Tyler Austin, Garrett Jones, Kelly Johnson and Dustin Ackley have all played at least 50 games, most in one season, in replace of Tex. Horrible production from that position.
But hey, cheers to both, each side is happy and each player finally got their show in the bigs.
Not for the cardinals
@robluca21
I was wondering too.
+south
you forgot to mention Chris Carter lol
Would you trade GG for Voit straight up?
What? Lol relievers are by far the most valuable
It’s easier to find a 1B tho.
Voit would probably either be in AAA (if he has options left, which I don’t know) or on the bench if he’d never been traded. He’d never done much to separate himself in St. Louis, and the Cardinals already have a few other corner bats that he probably wouldn’t have passed on the depth chart (not to mention trading for Goldy). Without being traded, Voit is probably still just a guy.
The Yankees definitely have the best player in the deal, but it’s not like Voit would have been given a shot to do much in St. Louis anyway. From that perspective, I don’t mind it for the Cardinals (although you could argue that the Yankees also turned a depth guy into a stud of their own). At least the Cardinals got a pretty good reliever out of it.
So the Cards traded their AAAA 1B for one of the best middle relievers in the game? I guess we can say the Cards are excellent at evaluating talent.
Apparently both Cards and Yankees are excellent at evaluating talent. I’m sure that’s what you meant to say.
gallegos was rated a top prospect for the Yanks before trade, (Top 30 team)just didn’t factor into the pen with what arms the Yanks had in 2017-18
After the plethora of articles claiming the genius of yankee evaluators and zero comments of other teams… it must sting for someone to acknowledge the cards and not mention the yankees in the same breath. Oh the horror.
@Melchez
“So the Cards traded their AAAA 1B for one of the best middle relievers in the game?.
Yeah…no slant there. You have an obvious bias against the Yanks and selective memory to insist that other teams don’t get their fair of print here on this website giving props to other organizations and their success stories.
For one, GG wasn’t “one of the best middle relievers in the game when traded. He’s was the definition of a AAAA player and so was Voit and that’s NOT the same as a journeyman who bounced back and forth for lack of production. Both spent 2018 going up and down from AAA to the majors and had the same amount of mlb playtime. 21 IP from GG and about 135 AB for Voit. Thus far, a clear win/win for both.
Ol melchez gets bothered by quite a few things. One of which is writers using an adjective to describe a players slash line because he wants to “form his own opinion”. Or really anything they write about a big market club. I’m getting the notion he loathes the site but just can’t find himself leaving it.
Southbeachlilly, I never said he was one of the best relievers in the game at the time of the trade. Thus the idea the Cards had great evaluators. Goodness, are all Yankee fans this ignorant?
Giz12, you haven’t noticed the bias in the articles?
If voit is a AAAA 1st baseman more teams should be looking at that league for players. Luke voit is head and shoulders above Gallegos. No competition
Based on what actual objective measure led you to make such a laughably inaccurate statement? Voit had little to no trade value and is a replacement level 1B/DH type. Cards have plenty of those lying around. Voit represents the same value at 1B as Jose Martinez does in RF. Defense matters and Gallegos is a far better value relative to the average reliever than Voit is at 1B.
1. I wouldn’t call a player AAAA after having only one stint in the majors. 2. One trade doesn’t make you excellent at anything
What middle reliever? Gallegos has clearly become one of the Cardinals’ best late-game relievers. Just because someone isn’t a closer doesn’t necessarily mean he’s just a middle reliever. Those are your (relatively speaking) more mediocre guys who mostly pitch in the middle innings, hence the name.
The people who are complaining that this was a bad trade, are the same people that if the trade wasn’t made and about was our 1B, would be complaining that DeWitt is cheap and won’t get anybody.
Next year Hicks will still be recovering from TJ so Gallegos becomes the closer with Carlos going back to the rotation. And he deserves it. Gallegos has nasty, nasty stuff.
Carlos isn’t going back to the rotation. He’s told the team that he doesn’t want to go back to the rotation because he sees his career being longer out of the bullpen than as a starter. It’ll be an interesting decision for the front office, if Hicks recovers will from Tommy John and Carlos is still around.
That’s not what was said on last night’s postgame show. Rick Horton very clearly said Carlos wants to be a starter. Doesn’t mean it’s true but I have no reason to doubt him.
Carlos stepped back on that position and said he wants to start.
That’s not what Carlos said…I don’t know where you got this idea but I have only heard that he wants to be a starter…if the price is right though I assume the cardinals will trade him
And there’s a good chance Gallegos will have surgery in the near future. Voit likely will last longer in the league than Gallegos. Relievers come and go like a fart in the wind
Gallegos might have surgery…Voit might take a nose dive into mediocrity…asteroid might hit the earth…point is no one knows
“Good chance” he has surgery based on what? He’s on a team you don’t like? He’s shown zero signs of health issues
Pitchers break.
Yankees, regardless of position, seem to break too
I didn’t think it required an explanation, but thanks for explaining the common sense to them. I forget sometimes that some Cardinals fans are dense.
I love advanced metrics, but similar WAR aside, i’ll take the everyday player over a relief pitcher every time. Regardless, both teams dealt from depth to get a need. Despite their lack of SP, the Yankees seem to grow hard throwing relievers on trees. And Voit wasn’t going to play in St. Louis. Everyone can be happy. Not every trade needs a winner and loser.
I don’t think anyone is really debating the usefulness of an everyday player over a reliever. The contrast thats being argued here is that 1B/DH position just isn’t that valuable this day in mlb where as we’ve seen closers and relievers get as large of free agent contract if not larger. So in the eyes of someone building the team and worrying about the practicality of paying a 1B vs reliever the reliever position has actually gained so much vs what the first base position has lost in the previous few years.
Relief pitchers in general may be becoming more valuable, but they’re still volatile and unpredictable. Edwin Diaz was the best relief pitcher in baseball last year. Look at him this year. You just never know. And the Yankees, despite all their resources, have been struggling to find an everyday 1B since Teixeira retired after 2016 (and probably should have been before that). In a vacuum, maybe the value of a first baseman has gone down, but the “vacuum” doesn’t matter when you can’t find someone to regularly field the position.
First thing I want to say is that I hope Voit has a very successful career…but to sit here and say that he is going to be a something after this small of a sample size…I mean the same goes for Gallegos but let’s let this play out before we jump the gun
@5TUNT1N
Doesn’t the value of a 1B determined by his performance? I mean, if Voit didn’t miss anytime he likely would hit about 30 homers and have a 11% walk rate which as of now, has him at an OBP around.390. That’s valuable regardless of the position.
They are still that valuable, but they aren’t as VALUED. You still win the game based on runs scored vs. runs given up. The actual value for players is exactly the same now as it was in 1990, 1950, or even 1920. But the perceived value of a RP has become much larger and the perceived value of a slugging 1B has become much smaller.
Whether it SHOULD be that way is up for debate, but the fact is that it is that way.
Personally, I wouldn’t trade 1 Voit for 2 Gallegos unless I have a better player at first. Simply because the volatility of relievers is just off the charts. A great reliever one year can be absolute garbage the next. First basemen (and everyday players in general) can fall off too, but they are less likely to a) drop as far off and b) drop off at all.
Great article. Love the creative retrospective pieces you guys are publishing lately.
Totally agree with that sir
in foresight Voit was expendable. in hindsight…Voit coule very well have never prospered outside of Yankees stadium. Even now Voit wouldn’t have a clear space in STL given his defensive profile, and he certianly wouldnt have gotten the chance to prove himself in STL last year.
@DarkSide830
By “outside of YS” implies that his power is a product of the stadium. Interestingly enough, of his 34 homers thus far as a Yankee he’s hit 20 away from the stadium. His power seems legit and not a product of the short corner walls. But the notion that the Cards dealt from depth is the same for the Yanks and GiGi. He was never thought of as NOT being a capable reliever, he just had about 6 or 7 guys ahead of him.
St. Louis had a choice to make, Voit or Jose Martinez. They were essentially the same player, but Martinez had more success at the big league level and the Cardinals didn’t want to risk being wrong about Voit because they were still trying to win. They made a choice.
If they make a different choice, maybe Jose Martinez hits 30 homers in Yankee Stadium and Voit is bumbling around RF for the Cards. Maybe not.
Is there anyone on here that would rather have voit than Goldschmidt? I realize that wasn’t the trade and it’s fair to judge the trade for what it is. But the cards gave up voit because he was blocked by carpenter, then they turned around and got Goldy which they wouldn’t have if they would’ve stuck with voit. Cards are better off as a team with Goldy and Gallegos as opposed to voit, Kelly, and Weaver. Yankees are better off with voit than Gallegos and Arizona is prob better off long term with Kelly and Weaver than Goldy. Win win trades
If you factor in salary then I strongly disagree that the Cardinals are better off. Especially when they need a catcher
Yadi is still producing and Knizner is widely seen as a very capable replacement when Yadi steps down. Most teams don’t need/want two future catchers with similar ETAs on the same roster.
The cardinals do not need a catcher…they have Molina who is still one of the best in the game…Knizner who looks like he will be just fine as a replacement…not to mention Herrera who is impressive and might make Knizner expendable
Not a bad way to look at it but I don’t know if keeping about would’ve stopped them from getting Goldy. A relatively unknown 1b stuck in the minors probably wouldn’t have blocked them from getting a top 5 1b.
Goldy is great, sure, but he looks like he’s starting to decline. At this point, I expect Voit to outproduce him over the next few years even when factoring in Goldschmidt’s much superior defense. That’s without even considering the massive salary differences.
Better off with Goldy/Gallegos than Weaver/Kelly/Voit? That has to be a troll attempt. Goldy putting up 2.1 WAR along with Gallegos’ 1.5 doesn’t compare to the 2.2 from Kelly, the 1.7 from Weaver (essentially the same IP as Gallegos, but as a starter), and the 1.7 from Voit (in about 40 games less than Goldy) even before you factor the salaries that everyone is receiving. Then add the fact that the Cards also traded a draft pick and a borderline MLB ready IF that’s hit .280/.373/.611 in 68 games at AAA (although the 21 HR is unsustainable), and I’d say that they’re in a worse position than if they had stood Pat.
But this isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Kelly would be buried behind Molina and would have a fraction of that WAR had he stayed in St. Louis and Carpenter is likely at first rather than Voit. So these numbers don’t really mean much.
The Cardinals are absolutely better off with Goldy/Gallegos because these two fit much better on the Cardinals roster, you can’t just look at a set of numbers to tell that story.
I’m not sure the cardinals are better off paying 130 million to Goldschmidt in his mid to late 30’s. That deal has a long time to go south. Giving any 1B that kind of money in today’s game is crazy. Goldy was one of, if not the best but he sure hasn’t been thus far and he’s exiting his prime. They dodged the bullet on Pujols’ deal but they very well could’ve taken one on Goldy’s. He certainly wouldn’t have commanded a 5/130 in FA had they not extended him.
To be fair, Carson Kelly started the season in a three way time share and fought his way to full time play, so who knows how the Cardinals would’ve reacted if they had him hitting hot on Yadi’s off days (scratch that, we do know, blind loyalty to Yadi because Cardinals).
They also could’ve tried Voit out longer, but he was deemed expendable in spite of solid plate discipline numbers and power, because of an unsustainably low BABIP over an extremely small sample size
They wound up playing Carp at 3B the majority of the season anyway because of the Goldschmidt transaction, and as I mentioned before, Goldy isn’t even showing offensive production at the rate that Voit is (which, is the name of the game for a 1B).
I won’t get too far in depth on the Weaver part of the transaction, but you shouldn’t give up that early on a young, controllable SP that shows an ability to repeatably throw strikes with multiple above average pitches; literally every single team needs multiples of those (and even if he didn’t make the rotation, he could’ve been in the exact same place that Gallegos is).
Are the Cardinals better off with Goldy/Gallegos/Molina? Maybe by the Cardinals strategy of signing advanced age sluggers to extensions, but by analyzing everything and figuring out how to most effectively utilize current pieces? You can’t tell me that you truly believe that the Cardinals with Goldy, Gallegos, Yadi plays majority C, Carp at 3B, and a DFA’d Shreve is preferable to Voit, Weaver as SP or RP, Yadi/Kelly split, Carp (still at 3B), in addition to a draft pick (and the slot value associated with it) and a guy that looks like he’ll be a solid offensive bench piece that can at least fake 1B, 2B, 3B, and LF.
I absolutely can say that. They are on pace to win the NL Central and may very well make a deep run if their pitching staff continues to perform at such a high level. Goldschmidt and Gallegos both have been irreplaceable pieces on this run.
Unfortunately, they don’t get to play SF, Pitt, Cincy, KC or Colorado in the playoffs.
The Cubs got to play the same teams this year and so far the Cardinals have done a better job taking advantage of that. The starting rotation will give them a very competitive chance at winning some games in October if they make the post season.
The Cardinals would be much better off right now with Voit at first base than Goldschmidt. The talent they used to acquire Goldschmidt could have gotten back three relievers. The 26M annually they will be paying Goldschmidt into his mid thirties could have been used to sign another impact player.
Geovanny Gallegos was other worldly good in the minors in 2016. The Cards did pretty well and took allot of heat for it.
I never thought the trade was lopsided anyway. Luke Voit hasn’t really proven anything yet anyway.
@themed
584 AB= .291/.394/.538 with 31 dbls, 38 hrs and a 11.8% BB rate.
Are you NOT entertained!!!!!!!
I’m not ready to nominate him to the HOF but if he can continue to perform at or near that level for the remaining of his 5 years of control then I’ll take that. He’s doing the same numbers he did in the minors.
Themed only watches the Cardinals and American History x. So he doesn’t know anything about Luke Voit
Oooo, what you said… dont be trash talking south beach lillies boyfriend.
@Melchez
You’re so so petty. Like a little girl in pigtails. Grow up. Half a English cigarette.
Nice article.
I read it 2 weeks ago on MLB.COM
With Hicks still out for most of next year and Martinez likely rejoining the 2020 starting rotation, I expect Gallegos will be the Cardinals’ closer next year.
It’s funny that you are posting this now, right when Gallegos is starting to regress. He’s been ridden by a horse by Schildt and is probably out of gas.
Starting to regress? He has given up 3 earned runs, and has an opponent .550 OPS in his past 11 innings.
Yanks made out on the deal. If you take Voits time with Yanks last yr and his current time this is pretty much equivalent to a full season and his slash combined is .305/395/588 with 33hr 87rbi 3.1war.
Although Giovanni has had a great year, just can’t compete with them numbers. So much more value.
And Voit adds to the Yankee injured all star team.
there’s 92 reasons, barring you’re a real baseball fan, to respect what youre witnessing this year.
And Voit adds to the Yankee injured all star team.
A lot of Voit’s HR would not be homers in any other park but Yankee Stadium. Especially those hit to right field. Voit has power, but let’s not get carried away with what he’s done thus far. It’s not as though the Yankees acquired their next Don Mattingly. Maybe another Moose Skowron, so temper expectations.
Still, I’m happy Voit got a chance to play every day. That wasn’t gonna happen in St. Louis. As for the trade, I’ll take a 1B with 30+ HR pop over a non-closing reliever seven days a week.
Finally, about a month ago I got a lot of replies from Cub and Brewer fans when I posted that the Cardinals were gonna catch them both and win the NL Central. So how’s that looking now? To quote Larry David from “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Pretty, pretty good!”.
Another uninformed comment. Voit, in 2019, has 19 HR. 12 on the road. His home OPS is .769. His road OPS is 1.003.
In 2018, his home OPS was .953. His road OPS was 1.177. His HR were even in a Yankee uniform at 7 on road and 7 at home.
@Plot Thickens
Isn’t it amazing how people just say stupid things which can be disproved in 2 minutes worth of a google search?
@southbeachbully, it truly is amazing.
Question for sake of arguement:
Where we’re those 12 road hrs hit, and, would they still have been hrs had he been forced to play in the same stadiums as he would’ve been as a Cardinal? Somehow I feel as if the green monster helped in that depth a little, among other places….
Who cares where hits the road HRs? He plays in the same stadiums as other players.
If Voit does nosedive…. Anyone remember that video of him doing 225 lb bench press reps with one arm (and then his other arm)?
Baseball doesn’t work out, I’m sure he could sign with the Jets. Dude is an animal.
Goldschmidt will be 32 next week. His 900 OPS years are likely behind him. Is he still a good player? Yes. Is he worth $26M a year at this stage of his career? No.
Ironic timing of this article
Cards had a logjam at 1B at the time. Carpenter, Martinez, Voit. Had to deal Voit. The trade has helped make their team better. Sometimes a losing trade does not translate into a loss. This one is an example of that.
Given how volatile relievers are I wouldn’t count on Gallegos duplicating his 2019 season.
I wouldn’t count on Voit ever playing a full season. He never has.
@themed
In his brief career, Voits been on the DL once. What are you talking about? Yeezus man. Do some research before you make statements like that.
How many full seasons has he ever played? NONE
By the way how bout that Soler trade by the cubs to Kansa City for one year of Wade Davis. Now there’s a lopsided trade for ya.
Neither the Yankees or the Cardinals had any idea they were getting players who would even contribute in the majors, let alone be key pieces in a successful season. All around, this was a trade where both teams benefitted, even if it’s just for this season.
@saluelthpops
I disagree. Neither expected them to be THIS good but I’m sure their scouts had reason to want both. I know Cashman said they liked his opposite field power, his walk rate and thought that would translate well. Again, I’m not saying they knew he would be this great but they knew what his strengths were.
He had a .290/.371/.463 slash so he wasn’t exactly a shocker. We get so caught up in minor league prospect lists that we ignore the ones not listed.
Agreed. This wasn’t a change of scenery trade of underperforming assets.
This was a case of two teams being willing to give up someone who was half a dozen slots deep on their own depth chart for someone who fit up near the top on the receiving ends