Luke Voit was on track for a fantastic 2019 season for the New York Yankees, but like most teammates, injuries derailed his season. He did have 429 at-bats, but never could fully get back to normal after his abdominal injury.
Voit struggled so much down the stretch that he lost first base to DJ LeMahieu in the postseason. LeMahieu was obviously having an incredible year, but Voit would’ve played first if he wasn’t playing awful.
Voit hit .263 with 21 home runs and 62 RBIs. His slugging was .464 and his OPS was .842. He’s a slightly below average defender with not a ton of speed.
His stat line isn’t terrible, but he was playing really good in the early part of the season. The struggles down the stretch lowered his numbers, but that was mainly because of his injuries in the middle part of the season.
2020 Expectations
The Yankees have pretty high expectations for Voit this year. It’s expected that he will be the starting first baseman now that Didi Gregorius is no longer on the team. Gregorius gone allows Gleyber Torres to shift to shortstop and LeMahieu to shift to second, freeing up first base.
However, Voit will still have to beat out Mike Ford. Ford is expected to be on the roster for lefty power and occasional starts at first.
With how strong Voit is, he is expected to hit a lot of home runs. If he can hit 35 home runs, 100 RBIs, and maintain an average around .280, the Yankees would be thrilled. He stepped up down the stretch in 2018 and there’s no reason why he can’t consistently play like that.
Voit has continued to work hard this offseason and is motivated to avoid struggles that sent him to the bench in the 2019 postseason.