Yankees: After Voit face-plunk should players wear protective face-wear?

On Saturday, New York Yankees first baseman Luke Voit was plunked in the face. This begs the question: should more players wear protective face-wear?

New York Yankees first baseman Luke Voit was hit in the mouth Saturday afternoon with a line drive. The Colorado Rockies pitcher that struck him, Chad Bettis was throwing 91.4 mph in the fourth inning. This should be a warning to all baseball players, a wild pitch can go anywhere.

Even though Voit stayed in the game until he scored on Gleyber Torres’ single, we should take his injury very seriously. Take Giancarlo Stanton for example who got smacked in the mouth with a ball from Brewers pitcher Mike Fiers in 2014. After that horrific accident, he started wearing protective face gear shown below.

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Fiers’ pitch was only throwing 88 mph and tore up Stanton’s face. He was left with two black eyes, swollen left cheek and stitched up lip.  

The Yankees’ first baseman should be thankful that he didn’t get that hurt but what about next time? They could also get concussions from a blow to the face. Should more players start wearing this protective face gear?

I know what you’re thinking: if they all wear face gear where does it stop?

Next thing you know they are all walking into the batter’s box looking like the terminator. My answer is, that this seems to be like a necessity. Just like an elbow pad, a shin guard, and a helmet.

Of course, baseball is a tough sport and baseball helmets weren’t even mandatory until 1971. However, these guys have to worry about enough on that field they shouldn’t have to worry about being accidentally hit in the face.

A lot of players already made the switch to face gear, so why not just make it mandatory? I definitely think it is time for a change.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments or in my poll on twitter.