With an opt-out available, Luke Voit hopes to stay with the Brewers. Now, the decision is in the team's hands.

PHOENIX – Luke Voit has taken matters into his own hands as much as he can this spring, but he’s still hoping for a gift from baseball divinity.

Last year, Voit was traded by the San Diego Padres so that they could acquire Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals. The Nationals then proceeded to non-tender him in the off-season.

Voit signed a minor-league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers and has performed well posting a 1.022 OPS in 28 at-bats.

Voit has an opt-out in his contract for Thursday. If the Brewers don’t add him to the 40-man roster by the end of the day, he can elect free agency.

“All I can do is go out there and worry about myself and keep swinging it like I have been and the rest will take care of itself,” Voit said after homering in Thursday’s game. “I haven’t caught a break in a while, obviously, with my situation with the Soto thing and getting non-tendered and stuff.

“So hopefully the baseball gods give me something here pretty soon.”

The Brewers can take the decision all the way up until the end of the day, but Voit's opt-out technically would have allowed him to leave camp and elect free agency at the start of the day. He figured it would be best to at least stay through the day and get the at-bats in regardless of what the team's decision winds up being.

“We’ll see what happens after the rest of the day happens,” Voit said. “I’m sure we’ll talk to (Brewers general manager Matt) Arnold and go from there. We’ve definitely been talking but we don’t have anything set yet. I guess we’ll find out in the next 24 hours.”

Voit’s only position defensively is first base and his lack of versatility makes his chase for a roster spot more challenging. But his path to a roster spot comes through his bat, and he has hit throughout his career, recording a 127 OPS+ since 2018.

Voit has said he feels healthier this spring and much more like the version of himself who led the American League in home runs in 2020 than the one who has been close to a league-average hitter since.

“All I’m doing is making their decision harder and we’ll see what happens,” Voit said. “If not, then that’s the reason for the opt-out and we’ll see if another team comes in and swoops me.”

Angels 3, Brewers 2

For the second straight outing, Brewers starter Eric Lauer was pulled before the end of the first inning and had to reenter in the second inning.

Lauer wound up going 3 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks. He got his necessary work in but said there is still plenty of fine-tuning to do.

"Mechanically, I feel like I'm just thinking about my body too much," Lauer said. "I'm worried about my lower half and my upper half synching up and not being in synch. I feel like I don't have a whole lot of tension in my mechanics right now, which is something that helps just to be more in the zone and have a little more life to the ball. That's probably the next step."

Voit's homer was one of just four Brewers hits on the day. Angels starter Reid Detmers threw five one-run innings with six strikeouts.

Peter Strzelecki had his best outing of spring for Milwaukee, going 1 1/3 innings with two strikeouts and no runners allowed. Joel Payamps struck out two in a scoreless frame.

Jake Cousins was pegged with the loss after allowing a go-ahead run in the eighth inning.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Luke Voit hopes to remain with the Brewers ahead of opt-out deadline