Joseph Daniel Votto

i think you meant this one: https://www.mlb.com/news/joey-votto-2022-season-ending-surgery

and yeah, he strikes me as someone who would want another chance to end on a high note

I didn’t know I was hurt. Thought I just stunk.

— Joey Votto (@JoeyVotto) August 20, 2022

This is so awesome.

Joey Votto (out for the season) is walking around the stands at the @Reds game. He’s hanging with fans, taking selfies, signing autographs, and sitting with kids to watch with them. pic.twitter.com/vhSjg40wyB

— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) September 21, 2022

JOEY VOTTO TIGHT PANTS CLUB pic.twitter.com/PEQ38fukgI

— kat is training for spring (@bgardnerfanclub) February 27, 2023

I read this today, absolutely incredible article, the bit where he’s saying a guy is a flat earther was the best

Also this is old but necessary to link

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf8BFg4FPPL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Votto/Greinke 2023

this was really one of the best baseball articles i've read in some time. the flat earther section in full

Stephen Piscotty, outfielder: It was a longer at-bat. He didn’t say anything initially and then midway through the at-bat he just kind of looked at me and goes, “You went to Stanford, right? You’re an engineer?” I was like, “I mean, yeah, I’m surprised you would know that.” He was like, “OK, so if you’re an engineer, have you ever applied your engineering skills to hitting and how you think about it?” I was like, “Wow, that’s an interesting question.”

Votto (handwritten): I enjoy learning from my peers.

Votto: Yeah, I also asked him: “Why the hell do you think the earth is flat? You’re an engineer and you went to Stanford. How the hell can you think the earth is flat?”
(Editor’s note: Reached by text, a confused Piscotty wrote, “I am definitely not a flat earther.”
Votto: that’s what he tells you.)

loved this part too:

Votto: My routine every day is to compete, then go home, play chess and listen to old Norm Macdonald and old David Letterman, have a sleeve of saltines and then go to sleep. I’m dead-ass serious. That’s my life routine from basically spring training on.

damn he is me

Joey Votto 👀

Any of the 64 teams in #MarchMadness need a point guard?

🎥 @Reds pic.twitter.com/q1FbkgbjgB

— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) March 16, 2023

better handles than kendrick perkins

HEEEE’S BAAAAAAACK!! VOTTO. STILL. BANGS. pic.twitter.com/KgyyaC9pfY

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) June 20, 2023

.@JoeyVotto is a LEGEND 😂

Catch the full interview with the @Reds slugger on Thursday’s episode of #HighHeat with @MadDogUnleashed & @alannarizzo at 11am ET. pic.twitter.com/aIRuzSzxQc

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 27, 2023

happy 40th!

One day earlier this year, the Reds prospect Matt McLain stood in the clubhouse of the Class AAA Louisville Bats and began to bad mouth the game of chess. Behind him, undetected, was Votto, who was with the club on a rehab assignment. Votto might have objected and put the minor leaguer in his place, but instead he laughed and enlisted McLain in a gag.
He set up a secret camera to record a chess match between himself and infielder Alex McGarry. In the resulting video, the contest is in full swing when McLain walks by and defiantly slaps all the pieces onto the floor. McLain said McGarry was not in on the act and that his initial anger was real. But most people got the joke, which Votto ensured would be on himself.

<3

The lack of hubbub going down the stretch kind of leans me to think the Reds and Joey might have already discussed him coming back for next year on his option season.

Reds got to pay him 7 million either way, so I don't think it is out of the possibility they might throw in few more bones for JV to play a final season.

At this point, I think Votto would be best used now as a spot starter and super 'Rusty Staub' style pinch hitter - especially that the Reds got two young big bats in Strand and Steer whose best position on the field is first base. Steer has some options to move around, but Strand is pretty much a 1b/DH.

I kinda think the options are good for mojo/clubhouse purposes as there is a really strong case for the Reds to move Jonathan India to get a starting pitcher. Same thing, there is so much talent to pay 2nd/SS for the Reds, India while the closest thing to a team captain they got and popular, is the one closest to free agency and a big raise.

Oh yeah, I found in my desk a Reds score card from Votto's rookie year, the game I saw where he hit 3 HRs against the Cubs. Pretty cool that I have hung on to this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfTKpXWMQQw

I also saw Todd Frazier's infamous one armed home run against Jamie Moyer and Eric Davis' first catch of two in a weekend robbing Jack Clark of a home run in person. Those are pretty much the 3 big plays/games I saw in person.

https://theathletic.com/5030604/2023/11/04/reds-decline-joey-votto-option/

I know how chimerical this sounds, but if I were the Jays, I'd absolutely take a chance and bring him in for one year. We've been talking a lot about intangibles, and god knows, he'd bring some the things this team is desperately in need of--most of all a presence that they just don't have (and that Semien gave them). They might even catch lighting in a bottle and get something resembling Pujols' final season. Probably not, but I think he'd be good for 10 HR, walks, and a .250/.350/.450 slash line if they rested him and picked their spots.

"lightning"

I can’t explain it - but he def feels like the type of hitter to kick it into a higher gear if he knows for sure the season is his last.

The Jays are going to need a new DH. It could be a nice fit.

pic.twitter.com/b6by6rXPKP

— Joey Votto (@JoeyVotto) November 5, 2023

What a fun mission. 😂

Joey Votto was on a scavenger hunt for mascots during #NHLAllStar. pic.twitter.com/Oq8XM8UtbC

— NHL (@NHL) February 3, 2024

Is this the end?

2 seasons below replacement off/def not helped by Mendoza line BA. Veteran presence not worth the team option apparently.

Feels bad man.

I hate seeing his posts about this

Idk how it worked in the past but the roster spots are precious and he’s obviously well past the options stage of his career where you could stash him in triple A and at least play him there. Supposedly he’s had offers but who knows. I don’t think the Reds even did a farewell for him so it’s not like some Brandon Crawford thing where there was the last home series dedicated to him.

He clearly still wants to play. I don’t actually know anything about him off the field but I saw that he deleted all the photos off his Instagram except three from this year, which seems…bad.

It kind of feels that the Reds just cut him loose and that was it? Yeah it’s a hard sport but if he’s a Hall of Famer, he’s going in in a Reds cap - maybe they could have tried a little harder to offer a mentoring gig? But then again, assuming he still wants to play, that may have happened & he turned it down.

Feel like the Red Sox would have taken a flier on him if he was right handed - he still managed 14 home runs last season and he would be the perfect mentor for Casas. Blue Jays have Vladdy. I can’t think of any other teams besides those three that would make sense for him.

Jays are missing an opportunity, in my opinion. Even with Turner taking care of part of what they would have gotten from him--and I know roster spots are finite--I'd still like to have him.

Whose roster spot does he take though? 13/26 are pitchers, 9 are starters, 4 are bench guys.

it is unfortunate but the only place that made sense was toronto, and as a team with playoff ambitions, they're much better off with turner (who apparently is a much-beloved veteran presence who helps younger players a great deal)

joey won't sell tickets anywhere else and he's not worth the roster spot anymore ;_;

I totally understand the rational, hard-headed argument against him, and I usually lean in that direction myself. This team is just so desparately in need of all that character stuff (and I think a starting pitcher, like Gausman, can only provide so much of that). Hopefully Turner covers enough of that.

And the Jays do need a lhh

With 13-man pitching staffs, teams don't have room for veteran pinch-hitter/occasional DH's anymore. With four bench guys, there's almost no flexibility in roster construction -- you need a catcher, two infielders, and at least one outfielder. If he could reproduce Belt's slash stats from last year then it could still be worth it, but I don't think he's got it in him anymore.

Belt should have a job, never mind Votto!

Joey Votto has agreed to a non-roster invite with the Blue Jays. He is back.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) March 8, 2024

Great! He either earns a spot or he doesn't--but at least they're giving it a shot.

looks like it either him or Vogelbach. hopefully this doesn't block Spencer Horwitz, tho i think he'll have a good shot at LF.

Reds got a jam of young guys that can play first or DH.

Votto might just join those guys who have that last hurrah on another team like say Billy Williams with the As or Ron Sanyo with the White Sox. Willie Mays going back to NY and Hank to Milwaukee a bit different.

Ron Sanyo and J.D. Marantz should have been teammates.

(I empathize--I've been bemoaning my own typos.)

https://www.mlb.com/news/joey-votto-homers-in-first-spring-training-at-bat-with-blue-jays

Hell yeah

“I accidentally stepped on a bat in the dugout, rolled my ankle and it hurt like the dickens,”

Most blue jays thing ever

As the only person he follows on twitter, I feel like he needs to see this. https://t.co/BuUlgtuQJl pic.twitter.com/0d9Wxlpd4r

— Devin Mesoraco (@DMesoraco) March 19, 2024

I should in theory post this to the spring training content thread, but Joey Votto…

Spoilers for Love is Blind here

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4yqTY9RYZv/