St. Louis Cardinals: Voit demoted to make room for Piscotty

The St. Louis Cardinals send down the rookie first baseman as the roster goes back to 25.

Yesterday, Major League Baseball decided to host the Little League Classic and had the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates as the featured game. This allowed the Cardinals to have a 26-man roster, which they used to bring back outfielder Stephen Piscotty.

Now that the fun and games are over, the club’s roster goes back to twenty-five with September call-ups approaching. Because of that, first baseman, and Missouri native, Luke Voit heads back down to triple-A Memphis.

After a strong start, Voit has not gone yard in his last fifty-five plate appearances and is hitting just .204 over that span. Another reason for the demotion, along with a low average and lack of home run power, he has not walked in his last twenty-five plate appearances.

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Simply put, Voit has shown the patience of fellow rookie Paul DeJong without the high average and consistent pop. Usually a visit to Memphis helps out Cardinals’ hitters.

Hopefully Voit finds his swing again, although it is hard to hit consistently when you do not start every night.

Piscotty, like Voit, has had his struggles throughout the 2017 season. Despite a serviceable on-base percentage of .345, Piscotty’s average is far from it.

The former Stanford Cardinal’s average has dipped from .273 in 2016 to .236 in 2017.

A big question is if Piscotty will get regular playing time. During Piscotty’s latest absence  Randal Grichuk has taken the opportunity for regular playing time and has ran with it. A slash line of .333/.358/.608 and more than half of his hits going for extra bases, Grichuk is giving Piscotty a run for his money.

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Voit gets the chance to get out of his slump ahead of the September call-ups while Piscotty is back in majors. Whether or not he gets a chance to prove himself over the red-hot Grichuk is up to manager Mike Matheny.