Yankees: Voit not listening to trade chatter

Luke Voit has ignored the talk this winter. Voit, a journeyman slugger who had his fortunes change suddenly two and a half years ago in a trade to the Yankees he didn’t see coming, has learned not to pay attention to the shifting, swirling winds of hotstove rumors that blow through baseball this time of year.

The 29-year-old has more important things to focus on this winter than the musings of amateur GMs about his future as a Yankee.

Even though he’s on the verge of his first big contract, an expected $4 to $5 million in his first year of salary arbitration, coming off a season in which he was baseball’ s home run leader, Voit has been learning howto set up a nursery and “What to Expect When You are Expecting.” Heand his wife announced they will welcome their first child in the summer.

He’s also helping raise awareness for the USAA’s “Army-Navy House Sweepstakes” this week to raise awareness for the big rivalry game this Saturday in West Point, N.Y — in honor of his brother a former West Point linebacker and Academy graduate who was recently deployed with the Army out of Fort Drum.

Voit is still getting ready to be part of a Yankees ’2021 team trying to get over the hump to a World Series — and win. So, he’s anxious to start hearing about the Bombers’ front office making the moves to get them there.

“I think for sure we can get over the hump,” Voit said. “I think the first thing we need to do is bring back DJ (LeMahieu) and then obviously we need to replace, starting pitchers after losing (Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and James Paxton). I don’t know what they’re gonna do on that end, but obviously there are good trade guys out there.

“I’ve been in (trade rumors), Gary (Sanchez) has been in trade rumors, everybody has been in them,” Voit continued. “We’ve got a lot of young prospects in them too. So, I’m just hoping that, you know, we start seeing some moves here,” Voit said. “It’s been a little weird. We’re used to seeing all the moves around Thanksgiving leading up into Christmas. So hopefully some of these guys will get some deals done.”