Yankees first baseman Luke Voit showcases power in break out game

Now Luke Voit is officially on the scene after he hit two home runs for the Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, let’s get to know the 27-year-old first baseman a little more. Also, is Greg Bird’s job in jeopardy? You betcha!

Yankees manager Aaron Boone decided to sit the slumping Greg Bird on Friday to let Luke Voit get a crack against Orioles right-handed pitcher Alex Cobb. His decision turned out to be the right one.

The big and enthusiastic first baseman smashed two home runs, one of which gave the Yankees a 7-4 lead in the 10th inning. The Yanks went on to win the game 7-5. According to NJ.com, Voit’s performance impressed Boone and the veteran starting pitcher for the game, C.C. Sabathia.

During his time in St. Louis, Voit was mostly a minor league player who finally got a chance in the bigs in 2017.

His numbers in the majors were not too impressive, but the Cardinals did believe with more seasoning he could develop into a major league power hitter.

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Voit came to the Yankees after GM Brian Cashman traded away veteran left-handed reliever Chasen Shreve and right-handed reliever Giovanny Gallegos to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for international signing bonus money and Voit’s services.

After analyzing the batted ball data, SB Nation’s Beyond The Box Score pointed out how the Yanks just acquired one of baseball’s hottest hitters at the time.

According to the data, Voit’s 91.3 mph average exit velocity ranked 11th in MLB last year. Aaron Judge‘s league-leading exit velocity was 94.9 MPH, and NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton‘s was 91.9 MPH.

Beyond The Box Score also pointed out that although Voit is 27-years-old, there have been other players throughout MLB history who took longer than expected to breakout. Most recently J.D. Martinez, Jesus Aguilar, and one of my favorite non-Yankees, Jose Bautista proved they can be valuable pieces to a team despite taking a while to develop.