How overrated is Luke Voit?

Last year the St. Louis Cardinals traded first baseman Luke Voit for relievers Giovanny Gallegos and Chasen Shreve. The Cards needed to bolster their bullpen, in particular on the left side. So they traded Voit, who was then blocked at first base by Matt Carpenter, for a pair of arms.

Voit has done nothing but hit since joining the Yankees. He will not participate in the All-Star Game tonight for the American League due to injury, but had a strong showing in the fan vote. This has led to criticism of the Cardinals for trading Voit. But is the criticism deserved?

Voit has hit for a .280/.393/.509 (.381 wOBA) line so far this year. Voit’s .381 wOBA ranks 19th out of 157 qualified batters in MLB at the All-Star break. By wRC+, which adjusts for park effects such as those at the hitter’s paradise that is Yankee Stadium, Voit ranks 18th. No matter how you cut the cake, Voit’s batting is elite.

Voit has hit exceptionally well, but he’s incapable of doing anything else on the field. Voit plays first base, but only in the sense that he stands near the bag with a glove on his hand with the Yankees are in the field. Voit is a terrible defender, one of the worst in MLB. 

Voit’s -10.5 fielding runs per Fangraphs ranks 155th out of 157 qualified position players. This is astoundingly bad. Calling Voit a designated hitter instead of a first baseman is an insult to the fielding abilities of other designated hitters. It’s probably more accurate to say that he’s an offensive lineman playing first base — a description reinforced by his base-running.

Voit is horrible at running the bases. He has lumbered his way to -2.6 base-running runs in the first half according to Fangraphs. That ranks 143rd out of 157 qualified hitters.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an approximation of a player’s overall production on the baseball field. It combines hitting, base-running, and fielding runs produced (or lost) into one number. Voit’s great hitting, atrocious fielding, and horrible base-running combine to equal 1.6 fWAR. That ties for 57th out of 157 qualified position players. It places Voit behind players such as Marcell Ozuna (1.7), Brett Gardner (1.8), Tommy Pham (2.5), Jeff McNeil (2.5), Alex Verdugo (2.2), and Brandon Lowe (2.5). 

The comparison is of course to Paul Golschmidt. The Cardinals’ big offseason acquisition is hitting .254/.343/.426 (.330 wOBA, 106 wRC+). He has posted 1.0 fWAR to date. Even with Voit’s fielding and base-running shortcomings, he has been demonstrably better than Goldschmidt. But those shortcomings are considerable, so they have made the comparison much closer than one might have expected. So close that it’s not hard to imagine Goldschmidt finishing the season with an fWAR total close to Voit’s, if not better. Albeit at a much higher salary.

Could the Cardinals use Voit’s bat? Sure. But there’s an open question as to whether he could hit for the power he has shown while playing his home games in Yankee Stadium if he were playing his home games in Busch Stadium, which has traditionally been more pitcher friendly. Add to that Voit’s terrible fielding and awful base-running, and the margin of error for Voit’s hitting shrinks considerably, especially in the National League, which does not have the DH position by which to mitigate his flaws.

All of this is to say that Voit is overrated in the way that New York Yankees batsmen so often are. And the All-Star fan vote total reflects that. I’m happy for Voit and have enjoyed watching the highlights of his hitting feats, but that doesn’t mean Voit is an All-Star caliber all-around player. He’s not. Voit is a middle-of-the-road ballplayer when we consider every facet of the game. The Cardinals' decision to trade him was not bad, especially with Gallegos emerging as one of the game's top-tier righty relievers.

CORRECTION:

The original post incorrectly stated that Voit would be starting in the All-Star Game. This is incorrect. He is on the injured list. The post has been corrected to reflect this.