Joey Votto sat down and spoke with the local media in Cincinnati for 15 minutes. The Cincinnati Reds first baseman talked about his surgery to repair his rotator cuff and torn bicep. He also spoke about what he hopes this means moving forward with his career. Here’s the video from the press conference in it’s entirety.
I would love to see Votto come back and be Votto next year. Whatever Votto that shows up though, Bell will have him hitting 4th in the lineup “out of respect”. So for all concerned, we hope to get the good Votto.
As he said, “We’ll see.” I hope he gets his wish. He deserves it.
I’d love to see the Votto we knew come back, I know it will burn him up to end up as backup quality player. Best of luck JV
Votto fans just won’t accept the reality that if Votto’s concern was REALLY for the future of the Reds he’d retire and allow the owners to invest the $22M for quality free agents. Votto isn’t concerned about the future of the team. He needs the final $22 million like I need a $5 dollar gift from a friend. Votto fans argue that players are paid for PAST performances. This argument doesn’t hold for someone as loaded as Votto. Votto fans are just padding the pockets of 30+ year old “has been” free agents. Eventually baseball entertainment will become impossible for fans to support financially. No argument will ever convince me Votto cares about Cincinnati or the Reds.
While I’d agree that several of JV’s interviews over the last couple of years have come of more about himself than the team, I think he’s earned his farewell tour. What he hasn’t earned is the right to play every day. With Bell, yes, he’ll start and bat 4th. But that a management problem not a player problem. I’d rather he retired but that’s not happening and who would take his place?
I don’t understand what your point is. Is Ken Griffey Jr getting paid $3.6 million this year for his current performance?
Do you really think the current owners would invest that $22M or would they just pocket the money and say where else are you going to go?
If Votto retired because he’s not performing, and told the Reds to keep their guaranteed money he would literally be the first major leaguer ever to do so. Who’s responsibility is it to fund the Reds payroll – Joey Votto, or the actual team ownership?
Your suggestion is naive at best and ridiculous at worst.
Given that it’s a guaranteed contract, and that he was seriously injured, and that he has performed at an elite level as recently as last year, what is he saying that’s so upsetting? I want Votto motivated and energized, and I respect that he acknowledges that he hasn’t performed, and wants very much to perform well next year. I watched the entire video and heard nothing that sounds selfish, or that suggests he doesn’t care about Cincinnati or the fans. And perhaps he will rehab and be ineffective next year, but perhaps he’ll be healthy and play at a very high level again.
Thank you for your opinion. I am a Votto fan and you couldn’t be more wrong, however like you said…..
Your allegiance to the Reds is without a doubt doubtful. Don’t forget baseball is a game and many of us want to see our favorite players stay as long as they wish. My grandson is now 13 and his favorite player is and has been since he was 2 is Joey Votto. The Reds are a small market team so let’s just enjoy what we have. I have been a Reds fan since Smoky Burgess caught and Johnny Temple played second. Just enjoy watching the Reds play.
Votto is now overpaid. He earned all he got over a career by baseball salaries. He isn’t that important for 200 million because no one should be. With that being said, JV has carried the turnstiles, shirt sales, lousy owner and others who made in retrospect, deals (moose) that killed this last mini window of contention. When salaries went crazy and I endured the losing during the Griffey era, they should’ve been spending 50 cents and saving 50 cents to invest when they had something worth investing in. Astro’s did it right for many years, too bad they went to trash can banging.
Was he overpaid last year? When you’re performing well enough to get MVP votes, does $22M seem excessive in today’s game? Mike Moustakas has been overpaid for current performance. Votto was overpaid this year. But I’d argue that was not true last year. And it may or may not prove true next year. But given that he has a guaranteed contract, what more would anyone ask but that he will focus on getting healthy, and he expects to produce at a high level in 2023? I’m not criticizing your comment STTB, just pointing out that he has performed really well, quite recently, he may very well do so again next year, and since he will get paid I want him to try to perform in exactly the way he’s describing that he wants and expects to.
Joey Votto played through a lot of pain this year, to be on the field and play 1st base for the Reds.
Maybe he should have admitted earlier that he was hurting, but I sense he didn’t want to let the team down, and he still thought he could come back. Then, he realized he couldn’t. He (and most ML players) play through the pain and not always feeling well to take the field and be out there playing.
Whether he can come back or not remains to be seen, but I hope he does. We would all like to see Joey come back for one more memorable year with the Reds.
“maybe, but maybe not. We’ll find out.”
His candor is refreshing. He fully takes ownership and that’s all you can ask for.
Votto has been playing handicapped which effected him even more than he thought. In one sense it’s amazing he was as good as he was. Even more than his offense has been the criticizing of his defense. He said it was so bad it was hard to even lift his arm over his head. Imagine trying to scoop balls etc. at 1B doing it with an arm like that. There are no guarantees of course. I’d bet my money on a healthy Votto coming back strong. Very few players work as hard as he does, very few are in as good of shape, and very few if any are as smart and motivated.
And knowing all that, he should have dealt with the problem sooner. Not doing so, one could argue that his approach was rather selfish.
Kind of depends on how you look at it. Ball players play through soreness and injuries all the time. Votto himself said he was very surprised when they told him he needed surgery. He had been doing strength exercises all along in order to “fix it”. It just got to the point it wasn’t helping anymore. I’m pretty sure if he thought he would have needed surgery he would have done it long ago. I’m sure he wishes he had. Most likely his career would have even been much better.
I’ve been fairly bear-ish about Votto’s likelihood of returning to success. But if he does come back, and they ban the shift, he could still put down more than one year as a productive DH. Here’s hoping.
Banning the shift is a big deal.
Votto has said he is absolutely committed to rehabbing and playing next year and performing. He said his performance this year was unacceptable and if it doesnt improve he’s taking a spot from someone who deserves it and he should be a bench player or platoon or DH. But he doesn’t see that happening. He wants to play and play well but also finish his career as a Red
C Trent has an article up and Votto is clear about finishing ‘his story” the right way and not confusing the ending. He wants to play well and finish a Red and keep playing if he’s performing to his standards 1-2 more years.
Nick Senzel had shoulder surgery late season 2019 and was throwing late January 2020 in Arizona. Covid hit so we dont know where he would have been by OD. That will be the next time point for Votto. Is he resuming baseball activities and in Arizona in late January working out. I would imagine there will be a Reds fest in early December and if things are going well, I bet Joey signs up and opens up to the fans and media. I think he truly enjoys playing baseball for the Reds….still. He is presenting Pujols a Reds recognition this series.
If you mean swinging a bat in January? I’d say no way. Best bet for him is to take time, skip our terrible April weather, using that as his spring training before coming back full swing in May
If he was feeling these problems a while ago, why didn’t he get checked out. I am a bit frustrated by this that it took him really hurting and not sleeping before he went and got checked out. He has been a great player and I respect the job he has done overall. I am pleased he is realizing that he may be less used in the future. Hopefully he can recover and at least be league average. This year he really hasn’t been able to perform.
What makes you believe he didn’t receive medical care for his shoulder prior to this?
He did get it checked out when the initial injury happened back in 2015. He was told that eventually it would get worse. It wasn’t until mid-season this year that it got to the point that it was uncomfortable for him to play and do other things and that’s when he brought it up and got it checked out again.
Regardless of all that is being said here about Joey, the fact remains he is our best option for first base. He will likely be the best option next year (if healthy as well, regardless of his salary or any other consideration.