5 Trade Candidates The SF Giants Should Pursue with the Universal DH in mind

5 Trade Candidates The SF Giants Should Pursue with the Universal DH

Luke Voit, New York Yankees

Voit almost won MVP after his unbelievable performance during the 60-game season in 2020. However, since then due to injuries, the Yankees trading for Anthony Rizzo, and changes due to shifting of viewpoints within the organization, Voit found himself as an outcast in 2021.

Now, a trade seems more likely than Voit dawning Yankee pinstripes in 2022. Paging San Francisco. Voit in his career has a respectable .271 batting average while hitting 68 home runs and driving in 182 runs. More recently, in 2021, Voit hit only 11 home runs in limited playing time and batted only .239. His WAR for the season would only come out to be 0.3.

The right-handed hitting Voit is still only 30 and is under team control through the 2024 season. His contract is relatively cheap; only a $5.2M base salary in 2022 with two more years of Arbitration remaining, so money should not be a factor when deciding whether or not to acquire Voit. If Voit can receive sustainable playing time, he should be able to get back to being the playing he was before the injuries. It's a low-risk-high-reward type move for any team, which is why the Giants should make the call.

With Voit in the fold, you could play him at first when Belt gets the days off in the field, and it'd leave you with an infield that looks like this, hypothetically:

1B/DH: Belt/Voit
2B: right now, La Stella, ultimately TBD
SS: Crawford
3B: Longoria

The projections for Voit are favorable the more he plays. Some projections -- while he is still a Yankee -- have him below 250 at-bats and less than 20 home runs. Others have him over 350 at-bats with anywhere between 25-30 home runs. If I did my own projection, I would guestimate he finishes (again, assuming he gets actual playing time, and stays healthy) with 25 home runs with around 90 RBIs. A bounce-back season is in store for Voit, and if the Giants were able to get him, he would help bolster the lineup.

Here is one more nugget for Voit to further wet the appetite, and to appease any questions about whether or not his power would transfer to Oracle park. In 2019, Voit hit 21 home runs. All 21 of them would have been home runs at Oracle Park--THE 2019 VERSION, BEFORE the walls were moved. In 2020, Voit hit 22 home runs, and at Oracle Park 20 of them would have still been homers. Finally, in a limited sample in 2021, he hit just 11--but all 11 would have went out at Oracle.

Not trying to turn this into a please-trade-for-Luke-Voit-as-soon-as-the-lockout-is-over piece, but I think Voit would be the perfect San Francisco Giant.