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Joey Votto

Reds Designate Edgar Garcia, Select Jonathan India

By Steve Adams | April 1, 2021 at 10:40am CDT

The Reds announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Jonathan India and cleared a spot on the 40-man roster by designating right-hander Edgar Garcia for assignment. Cincinnati also activated Joey Votto from the injured list and optioned Max Schrock and Mark Payton to the alternate training site. Right-hander Sonny Gray (back injury) and outfielder Shogo Akiyama (hamstring strain) were both placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to March 29, as expected.

Garcia, 24, had a nice spring with the Reds but now could be headed elsewhere before ever playing in a regular-season game for them. Signed to a non-guaranteed big league deal over the winter, Garcia held opponents to a pair of runs on five hits and three walks with eight strikeouts through 7 1/3 Cactus League innings. He struggled with the Phillies and Rays in the Majors from 2019-20 — 6.17 ERA, 16 percent walk rate — but Garcia has posted strong ERAs with very good strikeout and walk rates in both Double-A and Triple-A. He has a minor league option remaining, which could attract the interest of another team.

None of the other moves announced Thursday were unexpected. Cincinnati confirmed what had long been apparent yesterday when declaring that India, the No. 5 overall draft pick in 2018, had made their Opening Day roster. He’s expected to serve as their primary second baseman.

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Reds Roster Notes: Suarez, Senzel, Rotation

By Mark Polishuk | March 27, 2021 at 8:02pm CDT

After trying Eugenio Suarez at shortstop during Spring Training, the Reds seem to be moving forward with Suarez as their top choice at the position during the regular season.  “It’s looking like he’s going to end up being the everyday shortstop,” Reds general manager Nick Krall told reporters (including Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer).  “He has played well, he has moved really well at short.  He’s made all the plays in the field.  He’s done everything you need him to do.”

Suarez is no stranger to the position, having played 183 games as a shortstop during his seven Major League seasons.  However, only seven of those appearances have come since the start of the 2016 season, as Suarez settled in as the Reds’ everyday third baseman in large part because of his defensive struggles as a shortstop — Suarez posted a – 9.1 UZR/150 and -14 Defensive Runs Saved over 1463 2/3 innings as a shortstop in 2014-15.

Though Suarez has lost 15 pounds over the winter, it remains to be seen just how effective he’ll be with the glove at his new/old position, and it’s probably safe to assume the Reds are prepared to accept some level of defensive shortcomings in the hope of improving the infield as a whole.  With Suarez at third base, Cincinnati would have deployed Mike Moustakas at second base and then one of Kyle Farmer, Kyle Holder, Max Schrock, or Mike Freeman as shortstop, but the plan is now to use Moustakas at his old third base position and former fifth-overall pick Jonathan India might break into the big leagues as a second baseman.

No decisions have been formally made for the Reds prior to Opening Day, as the team is still waiting on a pair of notable health situations within its position-player mix.  Joey Votto is still recovering from COVID-19 and might need an IL stint to give him more time to fully ramp up, while Nick Senzel has missed the last two Spring Training games due to a mild groin strain.  Krall said Senzel is day-to-day with the injury.

The rotation has also been hit by the injury bug, as Sonny Gray and Michael Lorenzen will begin the season on the injured list.  Pitching coach Derek Johnson told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bobby Nightengale and other reporters that after Opening Day starter Luis Castillo, the Reds’ rotation will feature Tyler Mahle, Wade Miley, Jose De Leon, and Jeff Hoffman in a to-be-determined order (though Mahle will likely be the No. 2 starter).  The Reds are optimistic that neither Gray or Lorenzen will miss much time, and despite the presence of De Leon and Hoffman as extra starters, Johnson said the club isn’t planning to eventually adopt a six-man rotation.

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COVID Notes: 3/21/21

By Anthony Franco | March 21, 2021 at 10:12pm CDT

The latest on COVID-19 situations throughout the league:

  • Tigers starter Spencer Turnbull looks unlikely to return to Spring Training before the end of camp due to health and safety protocols, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including Chris McCosky of the Detroit News).  Hinch didn’t rule out the possibility of Turnbull taking a turn in the season-opening rotation, although it seems he’s now more likely to be pushed to the back end rather than take the ball on Opening Day.
  • Joey Votto returned to Reds’ camp today after testing positive for COVID-19 eleven days ago.  The former MVP is still on Cincinnati’s COVID injured list, but has been cleared for workouts and Spring Training games. It remains to be seen whether Votto will be able to sufficiently ramp up in time for Opening Day, as Reds GM Nick Krall told MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon and other reporters that the team was going to let Votto “get his legs underneath him and go from there.  I can’t give you a timetable.”
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Joey Votto Tests Positive For Covid-19

By Steve Adams | March 10, 2021 at 1:07pm CDT

The Reds announced today that first baseman Joey Votto was placed on the injured list, and while no initial reason was listed, Votto gave clearance to reveal that he’s tested positive for Covid-19 (Twitter link via The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans). He’ll be away from the club for a minimum of 10 days under the 2021 health-and-safety protocols. It’s not clear whether Votto is experiencing symptoms, though the obvious hope will be for a swift recovery and return to the team.

The Reds are slated to host the Cardinals come April 1 on Opening Day. There’s no experienced backup option at first base on their 40-man roster should Votto not be back with the club by that point, although Mike Moustakas did play 10 games at the position last year and has logged a total of 14 Major League contests there. Outfielder Scott Heineman, who is on the 40-man roster but not assured of an Opening Day spot, has totaled 124 innings at first base between the minors and the big leagues.

In an ideal setting, Votto himself will be return in time to handle the task, though that’s not a given. Per the league’s guidelines, Votto will need to be cleared for return by a joint MLB/MLBPA committee and the Reds’ team physician, and Votto also will need to pass a mandatory cardiac evaluation and a determination that he no longer poses the risk of infecting others.

Votto will not count against the Reds’ 40-man roster while he is on the Covid-19-related injured list.

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Reds Place Joey Votto On Injured List; Activate Anthony DeSclafani

By Mark Polishuk | August 2, 2020 at 10:02am CDT

As expected, the Reds activated right-hander Anthony DeSclafani from the 10-day injured list today, as DeSclafani is scheduled to start the first game of a double-header against the Tigers.  He will take the roster spot of a notable figure, as first baseman Joey Votto will head to the injured list.

The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bobby Nightengale reports that Votto told the Reds he was experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, though he hasn’t had any positive test results for the virus.  As opposed to the regular IL, the coronavirus injured list doesn’t have any minimum absence time attached, so Votto could be back in action within a couple of days if he is feeling better and he continues to test negative.

Matt Davidson tested positive for COVID-19 last week, a day after appearing in the Reds’ season opener.  This created worries that the entire Reds clubhouse could have potentially been exposed to the coronavirus, and those worries intensified when Mike Moustakas and Nick Senzel both began to exhibit symptoms.  Thankfully, neither Moustakas or Senzel tested positive for the virus and both are now back on the active roster, and Davidson was also cleared to return last Friday.

A right teres major strain sidelined DeSclafani just prior to the Reds’ first game of the season, though the injury was only thought to be serious enough to require a minimal IL stint and one missed start for the right-hander.  DeSclafani is looking to build on a solid 2019 season that saw him post a 3.89 ERA, 3.41 K/BB rate, and 9.0 K/9 over 31 starts and 166 2/3 innings for Cincinnati.  The man they call “Disco” seemed to be emerging as a quality rotation piece for the Reds in 2015-16 before a series of injuries set him back, including elbow problems that kept him out of action for the entire 2017 campaign.

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Rebound Candidate: Joey Votto

By Connor Byrne | March 25, 2020 at 8:01pm CDT

Reds first baseman Joey Votto is no doubt one of the most successful position players in the history of baseball. The 36-year-old is a six-time All-Star and a onetime National League Most Valuable Player who, since he made his major league debut in 2007, has amassed 56.2 fWAR and batted .307/.421/.519 in 7,372 plate appearances. Votto ranks 27th all-time in wRC+ (151), placing him within striking distance of such luminaries as Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron and Joe DiMaggio, and an even better 17th overall in on-base percentage (.421, the same number as Mickey Mantle).

If you’ve somewhat slept on Votto’s career to this point because he doesn’t play in a huge market or hasn’t been a part of frequent postseason teams, you’re probably not alone. Votto may already be a Hall of Famer, though, and with four guaranteed seasons left on the franchise-record 10-year, $225MM contract he signed with the Reds 2012, plenty of time remains for him to keep making his Cooperstown case. However, for that to happen, Votto may have to perform far better than he did last year.

The 2019 season was stunningly subpar for Votto, who was nearly a replacement-level player (0.7 fWAR) over 608 trips to the plate. Votto’s 101 wRC+ represented a 50-point drop-off from his lifetime figure and tied him for 91st among 135 qualified hitters. As always, Votto got on base more than the average player, putting up a .357 OBP, but that’s an unimpressive number compared to how he typically fares. Votto has walked in 16.0 percent of plate appearances in the majors, but he only did so at a 12.5 percent clip a year ago. At the same time, he struck out 20.2 percent of the time (up about 2.5 percent relative to his career), posted a career-worst .261 batting average and managed his second-lowest slugging percentage ever (.411).

Sometimes underwhelming production can be a symptom of bad luck. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really the case for Votto last season. If you look at his Statcast page, he was regularly near the apex of the league in one important category after another from 2015-18. But he fell off to a notable degree in all aspects in 2019. For instance, his .343 expected weighted on-base average was superior to most players, and it did outdo his .332 real wOBA, but it paled in comparison to preceding years in which he hovered around the .400 mark.

There are valid reasons to believe that we’ve seen the last of the all-world version of Votto, but the Reds can only hope that’s not the case. Not only do they owe Votto $82MM over the next few years (including a $7MM buyout for 2024), but it could be a necessity for him to bounce back if they’re going to earn their first playoff berth since 2013 this season. For his part, Votto knows he needs to rebound in 2020.

Regarding his output last year, Votto told Mark Sheldon of MLB.com: “It’s the worst season I’ve had in my career, pretty clearly. I don’t think it’s close. Everything went the wrong way.”

A lesser player wouldn’t necessary deserve the benefit of the doubt. However, considering the brilliance Votto has usually displayed, it may be unwise to bet against a renaissance.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Reds Notes: Brennaman, Votto, Gray, Barnhart

By Mark Polishuk | September 26, 2019 at 5:23pm CDT

The Reds played their last home game of the season today, which doubled the final game of Marty Brennaman’s 46-year career calling Reds baseball.  The longtime radio broadcaster was feted by the team in ceremonies both before and after the game, giving the Cincinnati fans multiple chances to celebrate the man who has been a fixture behind the microphone since the days of the Big Red Machine teams.  We at MLBTR congratulate Brennaman on a wonderful career, and wish him all the best in retirement.

More from Cincy…

  • 2019 has been “an awful year” for Reds cornerstone Joey Votto, who went into detail with reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon) about “the worst year of my career.”  The 36-year-old has hit only .264/.360/.417 over an even 600 plate appearances, with his batting average, OBP, and wRC+ (103) all representing the lowest totals of Votto’s 13 Major League seasons.  Were it not for a hot streak in August and September, Votto would have certainly been in danger of posting the first below-average (as per wRC+) season of his outstanding career.  It also marks the second straight year of mediocre power numbers for Votto, who had a .578 SLG as recently as 2017.  “I didn’t help the team enough this year. There were long stretches where I was a liability in important parts of the season,” Votto said.  Between his performance and another losing season for the Reds, it was a frustrating enough season for Votto that he is planning to “just take as much time away from the game as possible, just kind of recharge” over the winter.  This said, Votto also has some hope for a rebound, noting that he has spoken to other veteran players who have recovered from late-career “downturns and they made the adjustment and flourished at the end.”
  • Remaining an everyday contributor is very important to Votto, as “I don’t think I would have fun coming out and just collecting paychecks and facing favorable matchups and taking more days off. I just don’t think that would resonate with me.”  The first baseman is under contract through the 2023 season at the cost of $107MM in guaranteed money, and while he has said in the past that he was willing to retire if he was no longer enjoying the game, that time hasn’t yet come.  “Yeah, I’ve had my moments where I’ve been really, really frustrated and thought a good deal about non-baseball, but you know, I don’t think I’m there yet,” Votto said.
  • Sonny Gray underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow yesterday, correcting a problem that has bothered the right-hander since Spring Training, he told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer).  In fact, Gray said that “I think we were two days away from having this [surgery] done in spring,” which would have cost him roughly a month of the regular season.  “It came to a point where if I couldn’t start throwing tomorrow or the next day, it almost becomes a point where you might need to get this done now. That was definitely an option,” Gray said.  Even while dealing with the discomfort of four bone chips in his elbow, Gray enjoyed an impressive season, posting a 2.87 ERA, 3.01 K/BB rate, and 10.5 K/9 over 175 1/3 innings for the Reds.
  • Switch-hitter Tucker Barnhart is considering becoming a full-time left-handed batter, the catcher tells MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon.  “I’m trying to see if it’s a possibility moving forward and I’ll go into the offseason, sit down and think about it again.  Then I’ll head into Spring Training with a clear vision of what I want to do,” Barnhart said.  Entering today’s action, Barnhart has made just 46 plate appearances from the right side of the plate this season, compared to 309 PA as a left-handed hitter (including five PA hitting as a lefty against a left-handed pitcher).  Barnhart has a .259/.337/.390 career slash line over 1648 PA as a left-handed hitter against righty pitching, compared to only hitting .220/.297/.296 over 401 PA as a right-handed batter.  “I just feel like I’m giving myself a better chance, left on left than right on left….I won’t say it’s hurt my left-handed swing, but I don’t think [switch-hitting] has allowed me to reach my full potential left-handed because I still have to work on hitting right-handed and that’s less swings for the left side,” Barnhart said.
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NL Notes: Votto, Franchy, Doolittle

By Dylan A. Chase | August 24, 2019 at 6:54pm CDT

Reds legend Joey Votto will be eligible to return from the injured list on Sunday, but it appears that the plate discipline devotee will need at least a few more days before resuming his role as the elder statesman on the Cincy lineup card. “He’s making a lot of progress,” manager David Bell told Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Still no date. I know he’s eligible tomorrow. That won’t happen. Maybe not too far behind.”

Votto did some on-field work in rehab for his lower back injury on Friday. Cincinnati has around a 1% chance of reaching the playoffs this year on the strength of a 60-67 record entering Saturday, so Votto’s return will likely be mostly about gaining a little feel-good momentum entering 2020–a year in which the Reds expect to compete, as evidenced by their deadline acquisition of ace Trevor Bauer.

More jottings from around the National League this weekend…

  • For Padres fans suffering through their 13th-consecutive season without a playoff appearance, there has been no greater “what if” story in recent years than the continued tease offered by outfielder Franchy Cordero. Long noted for his prodigious raw power and tantalizing athletic gifts, Cordero’s path toward center field playing time has been submarined by repeated injury–an unfortunate circumstance given the recent-year struggles of center fielders Wil Myers and Manuel Margot. Now, as noted in a tweet from MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, Cordero is back on the rehab trail. While it was a wonky elbow that sidelined Cordero for most of 2018 and the beginning of this year, it was a hurt quad that has delayed his rehab for the last two months. Saturday marked Cordero’s first game in the resumption of his rehabilitative assignment, as the outfielder appeared at DH in the Arizona League. Manager Andy Green, however, has apparently learned to be cautiously optimistic in regard to Franchy’s injuries–with the key word being “cautiously”. “He’s on the path toward returning,” Green said. “It’s not a short path, though.”
  • Mark Zuckerman of MASN provides partial updates on Nationals arms Roenis Elias and Sean Doolittle, saying that Elias is “heading in the right direction” and that Doolittle should be ready for activation when his IL stint is up on August 28th (Twitter link). Does it even bear repeating that the Nats are in need of as much pitching help as they can get? Elias, for his part, appeared in just one D.C. game before being felled by injury. Between Seattle and Washington this year, the veteran has a 3.59 ERA through 47.2 relief innings, although his 4.68 xFIP indicates that he should be due for some bad luck regression if he does indeed make it back soon. Doolittle, for his part, has been the subject of a great deal of armchair psychology in recent weeks, as a rough stretch of play (10 earned runs in his last 5 appearances) culminated in his placement on the 10-day injured list with a knee injury. Nats relievers have amassed a 6.00 ERA on the year.
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Reds Place Joey Votto On IL

By Anthony Franco | August 18, 2019 at 11:42am CDT

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.

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Reds Were Runners-Up For Albert Pujols In 2011-12 Offseason

By Mark Polishuk | June 20, 2019 at 10:42pm CDT

The Angels are making a rare interleague visit to St. Louis this weekend, marking Albert Pujols’ first on-field visit back to his former city since he left the Cardinals following the 2011 season.  He could have been a much more frequent visitor to Busch Stadium, however, if he had remained within the NL Central, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes that the Reds were the proverbial mystery team that came closest to keeping Pujols away from the Angels in free agency.

Cincinnati offered Pujols a ten-year, $225MM offer, which fell just short of the ten-year, $240MM contract Pujols ultimately accepted from the Angels.  The Marlins actually offered more money than either the Angels or Reds, though Pujols turned down Miami’s ten-year, $275MM offer out of concerns that the contract didn’t contain a no-trade clause, and as Nightengale puts it, “Pujols [was] fearful of the Marlins being the Marlins.”

Walt Jocketty was the Reds’ general manager at the time, and had a long relationship with Pujols due to Jocketty’s time as the Cardinals’ GM from 1994 to 2007.  “We thought we were going to get him,” Jockey told Nightengale.  “We thought he would certainly give our organization a lift with his presence, on and off the field.”

After suffering through nine consecutive losing seasons from 2001-2009, the Reds won the NL Central in 2010 but were then unceremoniously swept out of the NLDS by the Phillies (a series that saw the Reds become just the second team to be no-hit in a postseason game, after Roy Halladay shut them down in Game One).  That taste of the postseason gave way to a disappointing 79-83 record in 2011, which led to an aggressive offseason for Jocketty’s front office.  Cincinnati added Mat Latos and Sean Marshall that winter, and indeed went on to regain the NL Central crown in 2012 and then reached the playoffs again as a wild card team in 2013.

Needless to say, adding Pujols would have been by far the biggest possible transaction for the Reds, and the signing would’ve had an incredible ripple effect on recent baseball history.  The player who would’ve been most notably impacted, of course, is Joey Votto.  Aside from six games as a left fielder in his rookie year, Votto has never played anywhere besides first base and (in interleague games) DH in the majors, and a position change would’ve seemingly been unlikely.  While Pujols had played a handful of games at third base for St. Louis in 2011, that marked his first action at the hot corner since 2002, so he wasn’t going to be moved away from first base.

The most plausible scenario of a Pujols signing is simply that Votto would have become an enormous trade chip for the Reds.  Votto had already established himself as a star, and since he wouldn’t have become a free agent until after the 2013 season, the Reds could have netted a hefty return for his services.

As things turned out, the Reds ended up spending their exact planned investment on Pujols into a new extension for Votto, inking him to a ten-year, $225MM deal covering the 2014-2023 seasons (after Votto’s original three-year deal with Cincinnati was up).  This wasn’t the only money the Reds splashed around that spring, as they also extended Brandon Phillips on a six-year, $72.5MM contract.

It’s hard to argue that keeping Votto over Pujols was a bad move for Cincinnati, as Votto has decidedly outhit Pujols over the last nine seasons.  There’s even some question as to whether Pujols could have even remained on the field if he had stayed in the National League, as the slugger said his decision to join the Angels “worked out perfect for me….With all of the injuries and everything that happened to me, it was the best-case scenario for me playing in the American League with a DH. It hasn’t been the best years of my career, but I’m still producing.”

Still, it’s worth at least guessing at how a Pujols-in-Cincinnati scenario could have developed.  For one, the Reds would’ve had Pujols off their books following the 2021 season, whereas they’re still committed to Votto through 2023 (and Votto’s power numbers have dropped precipitously over the last two seasons).  In terms of shorter-term results, who knows if the combination of Pujols and whatever pieces the Reds could have obtained in a hypothetical Votto trade could have put the Reds over the top in 2012 or 2013, though Pujols missed a big chunk of the 2013 season once his foot problems began to worsen.

Of course, who knows — maybe the Pujols-led Reds would’ve lost the 2012 or 2013 World Series to whichever team Votto ended up joining.  His availability that winter creates a whole new set of alternate realities, as one can not only look back at the 2011-12 free agent market for teams in need of first basemen, but it’s quite possible that teams without a defined need at first might have changed their plans if Votto was on the table (in the same way that the Reds weren’t seen a suitor at all for Pujols).

Pujols signed with the Angels in early December, so if he signs with the Reds in this fantasy scenario, that gives Cincinnati much of the offseason to market their younger first baseman.  Maybe it’s Votto who ends up in an Angels uniform after the Halos missed out on their top free agent choice.  The 2011-12 offseason saw the Marlins splurge on Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell in free agency, so maybe they could’ve decided to augment those free agents with a first baseman in a Votto trade?  If Votto is still a Red in late January 2012 when Victor Martinez tears his ACL, would the Tigers have spoken to the Reds about Votto rather than sign Prince Fielder?  The possibilities are endless.

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