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.
Best of luck to Voit.
At this point I want to see him go to Japan and rake like Randy Bass
Dude needs to sign with the Rockies and save his career like Cron did for a bit
Or the KBO
Tom – Or the WWE
He was a jerk when he was with the Nats.
Probably didn’t want to get traded when Hosmer invoked his NTC
Steroids wore off once he left nyy
Best of luck selling your Wander Franco jersey on ebay
too bad your anesthesia wore off.
Is he better than John Singleton?
Analytics is destroying many a player with platoon splits. Both Voit., Singleton – just need to let the men play
Ideally i’d love to see Voit back in the American League East. Tampa could use a boom stick in there lineup.
At making movies or playing baseball?
Reverse splits guy. He’s kinda doomed.
The one dimensional, defensively limited baseball player can’t find a job, you say?
AAA is calling on line 1
I blame the BMW commercials.
I know he’s had some injuries but it’s kind of absurd how Vogelbach gets an opportunity instead of Voit.
Vogelbach bats left, that’s the only thing he has going for him
Vogelbach out hit him last year and this spring. Not much more to it than that.
I hate to disagree Stormie but Vogelbach puts a lot of women in the stands he also has that going for him. It’s one of those things these stat guys don’t really follow. Vogey is a ladies man.
It was only 74 ABs last year? Seemed like more. He was horrible. So was Winker
When will MLBTR acknowledge the truth that the Padres released Brad Miller on March 13th?
Weird
I thought mets goal was to sign as many garbage vets as possible to tAke aWay playing time from prospects?
Japan would be an ideal landing spot. Hundreds of home runs per season.
I see a future appearance with the Savannah Bananas
Can he dance?
Mexico League candidate
Did David Stearns not realize the last time he wasted time signing Luke Voit?
That picture
Sayonara, or Hasta La Vista, Luke.
Seems like you need a change of venue, maybe in a foreign league, to make some money and get your career back on track.
When the Spring Training pitchers throw to where the holes in your swing are, it is time to do something completely different.
From home run champ to skid row
18 and life
I think he’s a KBO candidate.
They Voit’ed his contract.
There’s a Voit in the Force where Luke once lingered.
None of these jokes on here are even remotely funny. Man you guys are lame. Good thing it’s not your day job.
Is this a trend? All the larger Mets guys are going away. First Vogelslug, then Voit then…is Alonzo next?
No amount of chest hair could have saved his opening day roster dreams
Nippon Samurai’s will be his destination.