Luke Voit

Louis Linwood Voit III (born February 13, 1991) is an American professional baseball first baseman in the New York Mets organization.

He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, and Milwaukee Brewers.

The Kansas City Royals selected Voit in the 32nd round of the 2009 Major League Baseball draft, but he did not sign.

Voit attended Missouri State University, where he played college baseball for the Missouri State Bears for four years.

In 2011, Voit played collegiate summer baseball with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and was named a league all-star.

In 2012, his junior season, he batted .298 with six home runs and 46 runs batted in (RBIs) in 62 games.

However, he tore the labrum in his right shoulder and went unselected in the 2012 MLB draft.

As a senior in 2013, he played in 54 games, hitting .299 with two home runs and 30 RBIs.

After his senior year, the St. Louis Cardinals selected Voit in the 22nd round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft.

Voit started his professional career as a catcher with the State College Spikes of the Low–A New York-Penn League.

He spent all of 2013 there, batting .242 with two home runs and 16 runs batted in (RBIs) in 46 games played.

He moved to first base in 2014 and played that season with the Palm Beach Cardinals of the High–A Florida State League, where he batted .276 with nine home runs and 51 RBIs in 93 games.

He returned to Palm Beach in 2015, compiling a .273 batting average with 11 home runs and 77 RBIs in 130 games.

Voit spent 2016 with the Springfield Cardinals of the Double–A Texas League, where he slashed .297/.372/.477 with 19 home runs and 74 RBIs in 134 games.

Voit played college baseball for the Missouri State Bears and made his MLB debut in 2017 with the Cardinals.

Voit started 2017 with the Memphis Redbirds of the Triple–A Pacific Coast League.

On June 25, 2017, the Cardinals promoted Voit to the major leagues.

In 70 games for Memphis prior to his promotion, he was batting .322 with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs.

He debuted against the Pittsburgh Pirates on the same night of his call-up and reached base after being hit by a pitch.

Voit started the next day against the Cincinnati Reds and doubled off of Austin Brice for his first major league hit in an 8–2 win.

On July 3, he hit his first major league home run.

In 114 at-bats for St. Louis in 2017, Voit batted .246 with four home runs, 18 RBIs, and a .736 OPS (on-base plus slugging).

He played for them in 2018 before being traded to the Yankees during the season.

On July 27, 2018, the Cardinals traded Voit, along with bonus pool money, to the New York Yankees for Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos.

The Yankees assigned Voit to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the Class AAA International League and promoted him to the major leagues on August 2.

After he batted 3-for-16 (.188) in five games, the Yankees sent Voit back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on August 13.

In his next seven games with the RailRiders, Voit batted 8-for-22 (.364).

After Didi Gregorius was placed on the 10-day disabled list on August 21, Voit was called back up.

Voit took over the Yankees starting first baseman job from Greg Bird.

He hit his tenth home run for the Yankees on September 20, becoming the twelfth player on the Yankees to hit 10 home runs during 2018.

When Voit reached the 10-homer mark, the Yankees set a new major league team record for most players on one team with 10 or more home runs in a season.

Voit was named American League's (AL) Player of the Week on October 1 after hitting .458 with three home runs and eight runs batted in during the previous week.

In 2018, Voit batted .333 with 14 home runs, 33 RBIs and a 1.095 OPS (on base plus slugging) in 39 games for the Yankees.

By 2019, he became the Yankees' starting first baseman and in 2020, he led MLB in home runs.

In August 2022, Voit was traded with several prospects to the Washington Nationals for Juan Soto and Josh Bell.

He signed with the Brewers for the 2023 season.

Voit attended Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri.

He played for Lafayette's baseball team as a first baseman and third baseman in his first three years, and as a catcher in his senior year.

He also played on their football team as a fullback and middle linebacker.

Voit received interest from NCAA Division I teams as a football player, but shoulder injuries ended his football career.