BUFFALO, N.Y. — Luke Voit has had quite a journey: from a Missouri Valley Conference standout to a St. Louis Cardinals farmhand stuck without a spot in the majors to, as New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone likes to say, the star of the “Luke Voit Show.”
The right-handed-hitting first baseman has transformed himself into a staple of the Yankees’ lineup and currently leads the majors with 21 home runs. Only Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox (56) has driven in more runs than Voit has this season (49). Voit has more RBIs than Yankees stars Aaron Judge (21), Giancarlo Stanton (10) and Gleyber Torres (16) — who have all spent time on the injured list — combined. And that’s a long way from where he was less than four years ago, and far beyond even the highest expectations for what he could do.
Voit had spent seven years in the minor leagues before being called up by the St. Louis Cardinals in June 2017. He became an instant hit with fans in his hometown of St. Louis by telling the media he was there to mash “doubles and bombs.”
A graduate of Lafayette High in St. Louis, he grew up rooting for the University of Missouri and dreaming of being a linebacker for the St. Louis Rams until two shoulder surgeries derailed his plans. He even received a note of congratulations from Cardinals legend David Freese before his first game.
But the fact that Voit was plunked in his first big league at-bat might have been a sign of things to come. It would not be an easy ride for Voit, and his new wife, Victoria. Three labrum tears and a severe thumb injury later, the brawny slugger thought he had finally arrived. Going back to obscurity at Triple-A Memphis was never part of the plan. Voit promised himself he would do anything in his power to keep him from going back to being called a farmhand, one closing in on 2,000 minor league at-bats.
“My numbers in Triple-A were unbelievable and I felt I deserved a chance,” Voit said in a phone interview with ESPN. “Meanwhile, I am seeing all these guys that I came up in the minor leagues with and played against on other teams having success, and I was like, ‘I am just as good as them and yet they’re getting a chance to play every day. I didn’t have that opportunity with St. Louis. And it was a salty feeling for me.”
After playing 62 games in 2017, Voit played only eight for St. Louis the next season, batting .182 (2-for-11) with one home run and three RBIs. The Cardinals, who selected Voit in the 22nd round (665th overall) in the 2013 MLB draft, would not wait to see if he could turn things around and join the ranks of their success stories with later draft picks.
“I got stuck. I got stuck behind good players. Matt Carpenter was up playing first. They had Jedd Gyorko who could play first and third; there wasn’t really a spot for me. My only spot was on the bench and I was a pinch hitter and that’s really hard to make an impact,” he said of what little opportunity he had to contribute to the Cardinals. “[Pinch hitter] is the hardest position I think in the big leagues. Coming in in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth inning and you’re facing usually some of the best guys, it’s hard. Baseball is already hard enough, you’re already supposed to fail, and to come in and maybe get three or four at-bats a week is hard to do. I would have a stretch of like three weeks where I did play well, but I had to deal with injuries. And when any of those guys came back I went right back down to my role.”
In 2018, after hitting .299 with nine homers and 36 RBIs in 67 games for Memphis, Voit got a call he never thought he would get: He had been traded to the Yankees. New York would get Voit and…
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