‘I just want to win’
Voit says he’ll do whatever the team needs him to do
NEW YORK — Luke Voit smiled slightly when asked about his comments on Tuesday night. Voit knew they had reverberated around baseball and New York.
The Yankees slugger had been unusually blunt about what he knows is the business of baseball. In the wake of his struggles with injuries this season, the Bombers had gone out and traded for All-star first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Voit had lost his job, but he wasn’t “going down” without a fight for his job.
So, he took a page from the Yankees’ playbook, the one where they tell their players and manager to focus on the positive. He listed his successes and what he believed.
“Just a little positive reinforcement,” Voit said with a smile about his making his case for playing time. “Obviously I think Anthony’s a great guy, and it was nothing bad towards him. He’s a great player, I just feel like I deserve a chance to play too. I know I’ve been hurt, but I deserve a chance too.”
Voit got that chance Thursday night. With Giancarlo Stanton playing in right field, Aaron Boone was able to use Voit in the designated hitter role. He drove in two of the Yankees seven runs with a single. Since coming back from rehab of knee inflammation and recalled only when Rizzo went on the injured list with COVID-19, Voit has hit .244/.311/.488 with a .799 OPS. He has hit three home runs and driven in 11 runs in the 11 games since he has been back.
He had just hit a home run Tuesday night when he made the remarks that were still being dissected on sports talk radio.
“I was Top 10 (in) MVP (voting) last year, and I’ve been a great player for this organization for the last three years. I’m not going down. I want to play obviously, I know, it’s gonna be tough with Rizzo. But I deserve to play just as much as he does,” Voit said. “I led the league in home runs last year, and I feel really good again. And, obviously the
injury bug hit me and I am the reason he’s here, because of me. But obviously, I hope [Boone] can do whatever he can to try to get me some consistent at-bats.”
Voit, who is only in his first year of arbitration eligibility and under team control through 2024, admitted that after beginning the year on the IL because of March knee surgery, he was pressing to prove himself again.
“You need your legs to hit. I haven’t had my landing leg a lot this year. I’m not trying to make excuses, just hard to fight through it and I think I just got into some bad habits,” Voit said of his first 30 games of the season. “I mean this time around I’m learning and I’m watching video on what I’ve been doing differently compared to what I was doing last year or even like in spring training before I got hurt.”
Voit has been in this spot before. No matter that he had three previous good seasons with the Yankees, slashing .273/.364/.520 with an .866 OPS in four seasons, and was crucial last season when he led the majors with 22 home runs during the coronavirus-abbreviated 60-game season.