The Reds announced today they have placed first baseman Joey Votto on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain. Brian O’Grady has been recalled to replace Votto on the 25-man roster.
So continues a shockingly difficult season for the former NL MVP. Votto’s .262/.352/.410 line is the first below-average offensive performance of his career. In an era where seemingly every hitter is a threat to launch 20 home runs, Votto’s power has taken a massive dip over the past two seasons, as he’s sitting on 12 homers for the second consecutive year. As recently as 2017, though, Votto hit 36 homers and was arguably the Senior Circuit’s best hitter.
While Votto still has elite plate discipline (albeit not quite to the levels he once did), that lack of impact has to be concerning to Cincinnati, which still owes him $107MM over the next four seasons. There’s reason to believe the 35 year-old can still be a valuable player (projections, at least, believe he’s still a quality hitter based on his track record), the end of that extension certainly doesn’t seem favorable for an organization finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after a difficult decade.
O’Grady is a 27 year-old first baseman with five career MLB plate appearances, so he’s unsurprisingly not near the top of any Reds’ farm rankings. Nevertheless, he’s had a strong run at Triple-A the past year and a half.
Sad to see such a great player in a sharp decline.
He’s lasted well though, his prime was longer than most players of this decade. (Posey, Cano, McCutchen)
Not sure how you got Cano in there, this season is one of only 3 in his 15 year career where his season WAR is below 3. Posey and McCutchen combined have 13 three or more WAR seasons, only one more than Cano.
How many of those seasons for Cano were fueled by PED’s?
@steven Chinwood
Since Cano was suspended for the commonly prescribed water pill, Lasix, which was prescribed to him by a licensed physician in his native Dominican Republic, and that when Cano returned from suspension he hit like vintage Cano for the half season remaining, I would say none of those seasons were fueled by PED’s.
The mistake Cano made was taking a physician prescribed medication without first checking with MLB. There’s zero evidence he used PED’s at any time in his career.
This season, he found his sweet swing again after making adjustments through the help of the hitting coaching staff. You could visually see it in the mechanics. He was hitting quite well in fact when he tore his hamstring running to first base and should continue next season as long as his mechanics return like it did.
That’s a high level of denial you’ve found there. Let’s not pretend that this wasn’t being used as a masking agent.
PEDs aren’t magic
Brett Boone disagrees.
I respect Cano more after the suspension. He had a huge contract and HoF career but he still wanted to do everything possible to perform at a high level, even if it meant taking a huge risk.
Wish guys like Votto, Cabrera, and Pujols would follow suit.
“A licensed physician in the Dominican Republic”.
That’s no better than claiming the pharmacist down the back alley is legit.
Who care’s, a least he didn’t beat his wife.
There’s a reason why what cano got caught for is banned. It is a masking agent for the real stuff. What other reason does he have for taking what he did?
Come on guys, it was just a water pill. How else is an athlete supposed to get water?
Getting old has its pains. Hope he heals fast. Have always liked watching him bat.
So do I, and I’m a Pirates fan. He’s a smart player and intense competitor and he’s still a tough out even if nowhere near what he once was.
Back is in pain from carrying the Reds all those years. He is expendable now. Always liked the guy.
When are teams going to stop giving big money, long-term extensions to first basemen? Contracts that carry first basemen into their mid-30s and beyond are some of the most predictably bad investments in the game: Pujols; Fielder, Teixeira, Davis, Gonzalez, Helton, Giambi. These all end badly.
Votto is a great player and a god person, but many of the other names were, too. Just stop giving out this money to aging first basemen.
Can’t you really say that about any position though? 8-10 years of free agent years you are bound to have some regression. Pujols was the best player in the game at the time of his contract. He’s still somewhat valuable albeit nowhere near what he was but I don’t think that was a bad contract.
Todd Helton’s deal wasn’t that bad. Neither was Giambi’s. Besides the reason those deals are bad at the end is because they are so good in the beginning. If teams start offering shorter deals, agents will start rightfully demanding higher AAV. Either that or we will have another major labor stoppage that will turn fans off of the game completely again. 1994 nearly killed the game for 4 years until McGwire / Sosa, another might kill it for good. And then NOBODY will get paid.
PS – If you were complaining about 1B deals, how could you forget the worst of them all, Ryan Howard.
MLB won’t let a stoppage won’t happen now that game streaming is widely available worldwide and highly lucrative. Howard’s and Miggy’s are worst than those two.
Agreed. Not sure how Ryan Howard was left off that list…
Supply and demand and basic economics. But it’s trending towards less years and higher AAV. Teams know that the back-end years money is a sunk cost for the most part. And elite players are “underpaid” for the first few years.
he would have been gone six years ago. in clude this year, average it out and see why they did it.
Is 262/352/410 really below MLB average? I can see the slugging a little low in this day and age, but that’s some on-base.
At least by OPS+ it is.
For his position, anything below .800 is pretty pathetic
That is also coming in the Great American Smallpark. A can of corn easily becomes a dinger there. Votto’s power drop off is alarming.
It’s a 98 wRC+, which is very moderately below the league average (100). He’s not been a bad hitter, per se, but he’s traditionally been a guy in the 130-160 wRC+ range, and as some other commenters have noted, it’s not enough for a first baseman.
Gotta wonder if the back wasn’t bothering Votto all year. I know age is undefeated, but something didn’t seem right with Votto this season from day one. Hope 2019 isn’t his swan song and that he comes back healthy and ready to go in 2020.
Joey V. gets my vote for the HOF.
Hall of very good. Peak not sustained long enough, high enough. Cool noting stats won’t go up to the threshold for entry.
Counting stats are definitely short but I hope he can turn it around and add a few more 3+ WAR seasons.
Reds on the hook for $107 million dollars for a guy declining. Kind of like the Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols contracts. When are these teams going to learn?
I know, sad. Four more years of potentially this level of play (or worse).
It’s going to be painful…..
The teams have learned, which is why you all complain all Winter about nothing happening.
The Padres have not learned. They eat all bad contracts until the next CBA.
The Phillies are even worse. The Padres signed a couple of guys to compliment what they’re building. The Phillies aren’t building anything. They’re just going to be stuck handing out a bunch of money to everyone else’s trash for the foreseeable future.
Lance, the Reds are way ahead of the game on this contract. Overall, during this contract, Votto’s production > contract cost.
Wish he would’ve gone back to the taller stance much sooner than he did..of course he’s aging..but I guarantee his numbers would be much better at this point..
I know you are judged by the whole season of work but Votto got off to a terrible start. Since 5/22 his line is .295/.372/.456. While these are not the numbers we are used to seeing from Joey, hopefully it is an indication that the decline is not as bad as it seems.
Similar to Bryce Harper, Votto is still feeling out a taller stance. Less torque helps explain the drop in power. However, it’s his age driven declining eye sight that probably explains the drop in walks.
A worsening eyesight is easily fixable and I’ve never heard that being a problem for players with the exception of Kirby Puckett. It’s a combination of slower bat speed with a bad back and pitchers attacking the zone more aggressively that has led to his walk ratio dip.
Looks like the Reds are back in contention.
most ML players decline begins around age 31. there are exceptions like Aaron,, Ruth, Spahn, Bonds. Harper and Machado are still mid 20’s so SD & PHIL should expect high performance for the next five years. But the contracts handed out to Votto, Cabrera and Pujols after age 30 and paying them into their 40’s didn’t make financial sense IMO