Yankees' Luke Voit trade officially dead as hard-throwing prospect gets cut loose

Alright. Hand up. Mea culpa. At the time of Luke Voit's awkward exit from the Bronx, I believed his talent merited more of a return than the rumors were insinuating. There wasn't really a time during Voit's Yankees career when a healthy version of the slugger couldn't create offense. Defense? Next question. You got us there. But, metrically and on the surface, Voit always mashed.

He was a revelation in 2018, hitting .333 with a 1.095 OPS in 39 games as the Yankees fought to stay relevant in Alex Cora's first season in Boston. He was the Yankees' secret ingredient in 2019, slugging 21 homers in 118 games and pulling up lame in London just before the All-Star break, robbing himself of a selection. He led all of baseball with 22 homers in the 60-game 2020 campaign, finishing ninth in MVP voting. The injury-marred 2021 was his only down season. The league was really ready to let recency bias dictate that one of the hardest-hitting first basemen in the game was cooked at 30?

So, I raged. And I was wrong. The league appraised his value as former Padres first-round hurler Justin Lange, who was similarly struggling to latch on and stay healthy prior to the 2022 season. And, outside of Voit's oddball inclusion in the Juan Soto trade that sent the slugger to San Diego that summer, his role in the headlines was mostly finished from that point forward. 2023 was his final season with an MLB cameo; unless he returns from overseas, he'll finish with a 121 career OPS+.

Lange? He was never the man in the Yankees' system that he had been in San Diego's, and even the Padres version was erratic. The Yankees ended his "era" when the news of his release became public on Monday.

Yankees release Justin Lange, pitching prospect from Luke Voit trade

Really? Even the universal DH couldn't push Voit's price to a premium? Fine. I didn't know ball then. And I still have a weird blind spot here. Voit was good! Was Voit not very good at his one job?

Lange, whose headshot in MiLB's system is still a Padres picture (brutal burn), posted full-season ERAs of 6.44, 4.75, and 5.40 at various levels, missing the 2024 season entirely while rehabbing an injury. Ultimately, it was the right time for Voit to leave the Bronx, and he's made lucrative career moves in recent years, even if they took him off U.S. soil.

Still, if the book wasn't already closed on this chapter in Yankees history, we received more finality on Monday.

Are we seriously sure that Voit wasn't valuable? We are, right? But ... are we?