The Mets announced that they have signed first baseman Luke Voit to a minor league deal. He will join Triple-A Syracuse and be active tomorrow.

It’s been a rough season so far for Voit, 32, who got into 22 games with the Brewers but hit just .221/.284/.265 while striking out in 36.5% of his plate appearances. That led to Milwaukee releasing him back to the open market.

Voit’s production has been tailing off for a few years now, but this latest drop was the steepest. In the shortened 2020 season, Voit led the majors by hitting 22 home runs despite the truncated schedule. He slashed .277/.338/.610 on the year for a wRC+ of 153. But in 2021, he made multiple trips to the injured list and hit a diminished .239/.328/.437, wRC+ of 112. The Yankees effectively replaced him with Anthony Rizzo while he was hurt and then flipped Voit to the Padres going into 2022. He only lasted a few months in San Diego before going to the Nationals as part of the Juan Soto deal, finishing the year with a combined .226/.308/.402 line and 102 wRC+. He was non-tendered and joined the Brewers this year but dropped even further, as mentioned above.

Despite that downward trend, it’s not too surprising that the Mets are willing to take a shot. For one thing, they just lost their primary first baseman, as Pete Alonso is going to be sidelined for the next three to four weeks after getting hit by a pitch on his wrist. In the past few days, they’ve used Mark Canha and Mark Vientos to cover the cold corner. Canha is primarily an outfielder who hasn’t played the position regularly since 2015, while Vientos is a rookie who has hit just .167/.233/.256 through his first 86 major league plate appearances.

If Voit can get into a decent groove at Syracuse, he could perhaps force his way back into the picture. Doing so could push Canha back into the outfield or Vientos to the minors, depending on how things play out in the coming weeks. The other appeal for the Mets is the low cost. Since Voit was released, the Brewers remain on the hook for the remainder of his $2MM salary. Even if the Mets call him up to the big leagues, they would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Brewers pay.