Luke Voit Hopes DJ LeMahieu Stays With The New York Yankees And Sees Name Mentioned In Trade Rumors

Luke Voit has emerged from a quiet trade on a late Saturday night in July to a major league home run champion, albeit in a shortened season. He achieved the home run title despite visibly dealing with some kind of foot ailment that was vaguely described as “foot stuff”.

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Which leads to the question is why Voit being thrown around in trade rumors as the Yankee plot their course for the 2021 season that hopefully will not be anywhere close to 60 games but the normal version.

The latest bit of speculation is out of Pittsburgh and though it definitively does not mention Voit, logic states that if this move were to take place, the enthusiastic slugger would become a former Yankee.

According to Jason Mackey, who covers the Pirates for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Yankees have had conversations involving Josh Bell and Jamison Taillon. Not much else has emerged from that tweet but Bell happens to be a first baseman, which is where Voit plays most games before being replaced by DJ LeMahieu defensively in a double switch.

If this rumor mentioned after the 2019 season, you could make the argument Bell is the better option than Voit.

Bell had a monster season for a team that totally collapsed in the second half when he batted .277 with 37 homers, 116 RBIs while posting a .936 OPS and a WAR of 4.3. Voit posted respectable numbers with a .263 average, 21 homers and 62 RBIs while dealing with a hernia injury that resulted in core muscle surgery.

However, evaluating talent sometimes comes with a what have you done lately factor and Voit’s numbers from this season certainly surpass what Bell did for a 19-win team. Bell followed up the monster production by producing a career worst .226 average with eight homers and 22 RBI, numbers that calculated over 162 games result in 22 homers and 59 RBIs.

Then there is the matter of finances which is why the Pirates are even mentioned as trying to move Bell (see Gerrit Cole, Andrew McCutchen). Bell is two years away from free agency, made a prorated salary of $1.78 million and is projected according to MLB Trade Rumors to be paid between $5.1 million to $7.2 million.

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Voit is approaching those levels financially entering his first year of salary arbitration, which projects to get his salary between $4 and $5 million, making him less costly than Bell and with four years of team control. But by getting Bell, either Voit would be the logical piece going to Pittsburgh or be dealt somewhere else to make room for the switch-hitting Bell.

Both are good players, but if you are going off recent times, Voit is the better option along with a new contract for LeMahieu, who was significantly underpaid in the context of how he performed in the last two seasons.

These days, Voit is advocating for LeMahieu to remain in pinstripes while also hearing his name bandied in the rumor section. Recently on YES Network’s Hot Stove Show, he said he would bet LeMahieu is returning and Wednesday while speaking to reporters to promote Saturday’s Army-Navy game, he reiterated that belief.

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“If I was a gambling man, I’d want to put money on DJ coming back,” he told reporters. “I think he wants to be back. I hope he’s back because he’s one of the best players in baseball, one of the best hitters I ever played with. I want him in the pinstripes for the rest of his career.”

Especially if Voit can be devoid of the plantar fasciitis in his right foot, which bothered him for two months.

“I’m in the right direction and everything is normal, so I’m excited for next year,” he said.

The more interesting component to this rumor would be Taillon, who is another pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery. He has not pitched since undergoing the surgery in Aug. 2019 but in his last full season he won 14 games with a 3.20 ERA with a fastball that reached the high 90s.

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Taillon would be another pitcher coming to the Yankees with two years to go towards free agency and recently the Yankees have experienced mixed results with that category of pitcher.

They gave up three prospects for Sonny Gray, only to openly say they were trading him after a nightmarish 2018 season. They parted with Justus Sheffield to get James Paxton from Seattle and that move also was mixed with Paxton winning 15 games and then getting derailed by back surgery followed by a forearm injury that impacted his fastball velocity heading into free agency.

As of Tuesday, Taillon told the Post-Gazette he feels “phenomenal” after resuming throwing and thus is a classic buy low pitcher. And pitching is more of a need at this point with numerous innings to fill beyond Cole.

The Yankees currently have three free agents in Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and Paxton. Tanaka is a possibility to return, Happ appears all but gone and Paxton seems unlikely to return, meaning a rotation is Cole, a returning Luis Severino from Tommy John surgery, along with youngsters Deivi Garcia and Jordan Montgomery.

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Of course, the Yankees still want to settle the LeMahieu situation while fans hope Voit’s words are right. It just may be a question of Voit and LeMahieu remaining teammates in pinstripes.