Reds decline Joey Vottos 2024 contract option: Whats next for the first baseman?

CINCINNATI For the first time since June 4, 2002, Joey Votto is not a Cincinnati Red. The Reds declined their $20 million option on Vottos contract and after a buyout of $7 million, Votto is a free agent, the team announced Saturday.

CINCINNATI — For the first time since June 4, 2002, Joey Votto is not a Cincinnati Red.

The Reds declined their $20 million option on Votto’s contract and after a buyout of $7 million, Votto is a free agent, the team announced Saturday.

The 40-year-old Votto has already expressed his desire to play “at least” one more season. He could still return to the Reds, but if he were to return to the team, he’d be in a spot that he hasn’t been in since 2008, when he came into the season as a part-time player behind veteran first baseman Scott Hatteberg.

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“For 17 seasons, Joey has been the heart of Reds baseball as a Most Valuable Player, All-Star and respected clubhouse leader. His contributions to our team and his extraordinary generosity toward those in need, throughout our region and beyond, cannot be measured,” Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said in a statement. “At this point of the off-season, based on our current roster and projected plans for 2024, as an organization we cannot commit to the playing time Joey deserves. He forever will be part of the Reds’ family, and at the appropriate time we will thank and honor him as one of the greatest baseball players of this or any generation.”

The #Reds today declined the 2024 club option on the contract of 1B Joey Votto. pic.twitter.com/ACika5Oum7

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) November 4, 2023

Votto, though, has said he still believes he can be a full-time player and would want to find a place where he could do that. The question is just where that may be.

The Reds finished 82-80 in 2023 and will enter the 2024 season with high expectations, as well as a glut of infielders and designated hitters, even without Votto. Among the candidates for first base include Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Tyler Stephenson and Jonathan India. All four of those players, though, hit right-handed, leaving Nick Martini as the team’s lone left-handed option at first on the current roster.

If Votto were to accept a part-time role, there could be a roster fit. Votto played in 65 games in 2023, hitting .202/.314/.433 with 14 home runs, good for a 99 OPS+. Votto actually performed much better in his limited at-bats against left-handed pitchers last season, putting up a 142 OPS+ in 57 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers and a 91 OPS+ in 185 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers.

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Votto started the season on the injured list after undergoing shoulder surgery in August 2022. Votto hit 36 home runs in 2021 and put up a 139 OPS+ in that, his last healthy season and only healthy season over the last four.

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“A stretch of health gives me optimism I can be competitive and productive,” Votto wrote in a text message to The Athletic last month. “The game will tell me if I am correct or not.”

While it doesn’t appear that Votto will retire before next season, he could don the uniform of another franchise for the first time in his career. It’s likely that no player will ever wear No. 19 for the Reds again, as Votto’s number will likely be the team’s 11th retired number, not including No. 42, which is retired across Major League Baseball to honor Jackie Robinson.

If this is indeed the end of Votto’s career with the Reds, he’ll finish his career in the argument as the greatest hitter in the history of the franchise, in the argument with the game’s all-time hits leader in Pete Rose, as well as Hall of Famers Frank Robinson and Johnny Bench.

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Votto’s name litters the team’s record books, where he is the franchise’s all-time leader in walks (1,365) and intentional walks (147) and is second to Rose in doubles (459), times on base via walk, hit or hit by pitch (3,581), extra-base hits (837) and total bases (3,706). Only Bench (389) has more home runs as a Red than Votto’s 356. Votto is fifth all-time in games for the Reds (2,056), fourth in hits (2,135), third in runs (1,171) and RBI (1,144).

Votto has been highly complimentary about the team he leaves behind with a plethora of young, talented players now dotting the roster, including not just Steer and Encarnacion-Strand as options at his position, but fellow infielders Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz and Noelvi Marte, as well as young starters Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft and Andrew Abbott.

While Votto was in the big leagues when some of his teammates were in elementary school, he fit in with his young teammates and was repeatedly credited with helping the rookies feel comfortable and part of the team, a catalyst for the much-lauded culture put together in spring training.

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Among the players embraced by the veteran Votto was De La Cruz, who was born in 2002, the same year Votto was drafted as a catcher from a suburb outside Toronto.

The day Votto was drafted in the second round, the Reds lineup included Barry Larkin, Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr., Sean Casey and Aaron Boone. On the other side of the field was Albert Pujols, who started that game at third base and moved to left field. Speaking of the field, that game was Cinergy Field, the predecessor of Great American Ball Park, which would open the next year. Votto signed his contract the next day.

Votto debuted in the big leagues on Sept. 4, 2007, striking out as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Gary Majewski. The next day, he started at first base against the Mets, batting eighth and homering off of John Maine in the second for his first career hit.

At the time, Votto wasn’t the team’s top prospect, ranking no better than third on any of the prospect lists behind Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey. Bailey was the first of the three to debut, while Bruce and Johnny Cueto would make the big leagues the next season. That group was part of a core that won the National League Central in 2010 and 2012 and went to the playoffs in 2013.

Votto won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 2010 and signed his 10-year extension before the 2012 season. At the time, it seemed like a lifetime before the Reds would have to make a decision on Votto. That decision was finalized Saturday, with the Reds closing the book on Votto’s Hall of Fame career with the team.

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(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)

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