Luke Voit is back with the Mets organization where, this time, he sees a clear path to actually get time in the big leagues.
The club officially announced on Monday that the 33-year-old designated hitter and first baseman was back on a minor-league deal with an invitation to major-league camp after spending seven weeks with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate last season.
In just 37 games, he hit 14 home runs with 35 RBI, but he opted out of his deal after the Mets passed on him as a late-season call-up, opting to give longer looks at some of their younger players.
“It sucked. I didn’t know what else I needed to do,” Voit said (h/t SNY). “I understand at that point they wanted to play their young guys, so it’s a business, and that’s what a lot of other teams said to me after I opted out… The Mets came calling [again] and I felt like this is an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
Evaluating the younger talent is still a priority for new president of baseball operations, David Stearns, but there are still questionable areas of the Mets’ roster that Voit could potentially fill — most notably the DH spot where Mark Vientos and DJ Stewart are two main competitors.
“I think I have a role to possibly be a DH,” Voit said. “Obviously, give [Pete Alonso] some days off at first base. I know my ability and I think it was good last year being in Syracuse to find a little bit of myself.”
Consider Voit a security blanket with the best power-hitting pedigree amongst the young Vientos, the second-half sensation in Stewart, or the newly-acquired Ji-man Choi. From 2018-2022 with the Cardinals, Yankees, Padres, and Nationals, he hit 91 home runs in 424 games, which is a 162-game average of 35 round-trippers. But he didn’t hit one in 22 games with the Milwaukee Brewers last year and was released in early June.
“I feel really confident coming in… there’s definitely the ability for me to make the team and to get a chance to play,” Voit said. “I’ve had to win jobs before in St. Louis and the Bronx so I’m all for a competition.
“At the end of the day, I just have to focus on myself and the end goal is to make the team.”
