Every sports fan has the great moments that are etched in their mind forever. The moments where you know exactly where you were, what you were eating, the beer you were drinking and the shirt you were wearing. The moments you hope to relive. The highs you question if you’ll ever be able to reach again.
Every sports fan also has the horrible moments etched in a deeper part of the mind, only to be unearthed on those particularly sad nights. The moments where the heartache was at its greatest. Where you came up just short. Where you were the victim of one of the great moments and have to relive it through the highlight reels forever.
One that continues to cause pain came in 2012 as I watched Buster Posey launch a moon shot grand slam off the upper deck in Great American Ballpark, effectively putting the final touches on a brutal postseason collapse at the Reds (and furthering the Even Year Bullshit of the Giants in the process).
What I didn’t realize as Posey’s bomb careened off the signage on the second deck was Joey Votto’s best and singular true chance of winning was crashing off the scoreboard with it. At the time, Votto was 28 years old — still young in baseball — and just two years removed from an MVP season. Many of those around him that helped the Reds to the second-best record in baseball, whether at the plate or on the mound, were young with long careers still ahead of them.
Zack Cozart, Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, Devin Mesoraco and Johnny Cueto, all past or future All-Stars, were under 30 years old. Only one starting rotation tossed more innings than the Reds’ 1018.2, which also finished 10th in the league in FIP, and only one pitcher was older than 26.
In effect, as I tried to reconcile what happened in the aftermath of that collapse, the solace was that this Reds team was built for the now and the future and was anchored by one of the greatest players of his generation in Votto. This hurt, but the Reds and Votto would have more postseason chances to get it right.
Since that day nearly 10 years ago, Votto has had 14 postseason plate appearances.
Four of those came in 2013 in the wild card play-in game, a contest that feels like the purgatory between regular season and postseason. The remainder of those came in 2020 when a COVID-shortened season led to half the league making the playoffs and Cincinnati just barely sneaking in even then.
He never got the chance to make it right.
Votto held up his end of the bargain throughout the years. His 36.9 WAR from 2013-2021 was ninth-best in the league. He’s steadily climbed up all sorts of all-time leaderboards for the Reds franchise. Here’s just a brief look at where he ranks within the franchise’s all-time leaderboards:
4th in batter WAR (64.3)
2nd in on-base percentage (.412)
5th in slugging percentage (.513)
6th in games played (1991)
5th in hits (2093)
2nd in home runs (342)
1st in walks (1338)
But while he’s pieced together a Hall of Fame career, the Reds owners have rewarded him by refusing to put together a winning team around him, desiring financial gain over everything else.
The 2020 team that returned to the playoffs? There were zero pieces from the 2013 team outside of Votto on that side. That year represented the one time the Reds went for it, spending $164 million on four players, including Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas. After a slow start, the team delivered not just one of the greatest memes berthed a meme and postseason appearance.
They then hit .169 as a team in two games, left 17 runners on base and bowed out with a whimper from the playoffs. Again, though, this was a team locked up long-term and were already a contender. Maintaining status quo with minimal spending would have kept them in the playoffs and anything can happen from there.
Instead, over the next two seasons, the team slashed payroll drastically. They prioritized money over competitiveness as they traded away three members of the rotation, allowed three others of the six-man group to walk in free agency and did the same with 2/3rds of the starting lineup.
The team ranked 16th in opening day payroll in 2020 and has dropped down each of the subsequent two years, currently sitting at 21st in the league in 2022. There are two players on the roster on non-arbitration contracts for 2023 and zero for 2024 and beyond.
This has all come at an interesting time in Votto’s career. Father Time was starting to take a toll on his game, which was long one derived on a compact swing that generated enough power to put balls into the gaps or occasionally over the fence. As age caught up to him, that power couldn’t be generated from the same swing. Balls off the bat that were once line drives into the gap were now grounders and popouts.
The solution from Votto was a new swing that was a bit more boom or bust. In 2021, his average dropped to .266, well below his career mark of .297. But his slugging percentage jumped to .563, well above his .513 average. His 36 homers were the most since his 2017 season, that runner-up MVP finish.
He adapted his game to his physical limitations, revitalizing his career and providing excitement for his future. A torn labrum hampered and eventually sidelined him in 2022, an unfortunate consequence of that battle with Father Time.
But the Reds weren’t reinventing themselves along with him. The franchise was more focused on profits. And when they were confronted on those matters, they issued a bizarre threat/warning toward the fanbase on Opening Day of 2022.
Asked before Tuesday’s game what he would tell fans who lost faith in the team’s direction after multiple winters spent cutting payroll and just two postseason wins since 1995, Castellini berated the audacity of such criticism by mocking them.
“Well, where are you gonna go?” (Reds president Phil) Castellini said. “Let’s start there. Sell the team to who? … What would you do with this team to have it be more profitable, make more money and compete more?”
Votto spent his career perfecting his craft. He adapted when needed, always focused on competing and winning at the highest level. The Reds spent most of his career not sharing the same mindset, looking to turn the highest profit rather than win the most ball games.
That season-ending injury in 2022 quickly brought his baseball mortality to the forefront. With an opt-out clause in his contract for 2023 that is significantly cheaper than the salary he’d be due, there’s a very real chance he’s entering his final year in Cincinnati and maybe in baseball as a whole.
And if that’s the case, it’s a massive indictment on the franchise. Votto will rank as one of the greatest ever to don the Reds uniform, a lofty achievement for the first professional team ever that has seen Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench and Barry Larkin. He will also likely finish his career with four total playoff appearances and none of those further than the NLDS.
The Reds not only failed Votto, they failed their fans. The franchise saw him reach the ultimate individual apex in baseball as the MVP in 2010, locked him up long-term in 2012 and then spent the next decade looking to put money back in their pockets and threatening fans who dare question their approach.
Joey Votto is one of the greatest of his generation. A Hall of Famer, maybe even first ballot. He’s a fascinatingly unique player, both in terms of playstyle and personality.
And he deserved better.
What I’m watching
I recently watched “Amy” late one night — a documentary about the late Amy Winehouse — and it’s one of the most remarkable and soul-crushing things I’ve seen in some time. It’s not a new project and it’s one that has received rave reviews but I can’t recommend it enough for those with HBO Max.
What I’m reading
I’m putting myself on the record with this one by vowing to finish “Giannis.” It’s sat on my coffee table half-read for months. I’ll have a review in this section in the near future.
Quote of the Week
“Buffalo, I’m not telling you I’m Moses. That’s ridiculous. I’m better than Moses!” - Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
Let this serve as a bit of a teaser for next week’s post.