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Joey Votto Calls Out The Critics Saying He’s Done

BSabitt
Fans are calling on the Cincinnati Reds to free Joey Votto after they've made it clear that they're not serious about building a contender in the near future

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 14: Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto (19) comes to bat during the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals on August 14, 2019, at Nationals Park, in Washington D.C. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire)

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto has been known to get off to some slow starts to his season in years past. But playing into the historically-bad first part of the Reds season, Votto has struggled mightily.

Despite being one of the top hitters in all of baseball for the past decade, Votto is currently hitting just .122 on the season with very little slugging to boot.

With this being the case, the baseball analytics people over at Fangraphs have openly posed the question: have we seen the last of the dominant version of Joey Votto?

“If something cannot go forever, it will stop.” Credited to economist Herb Stein, this tautology, sometimes known as Stein’s law, has broad application past the field of economics: the Earth will end, the sun will end, the ability of the universe to sustain life will end, all the non-Top Chef shows on Bravo will end (hopefully), and we’ll end. Joey Votto does not exist outside of the space-time universe, and his 2022 season so far makes it look like his career will end before all of these things. Or will it?

Votto’s career has looked shaky at times before, but he has made comebacks before: from a leg injury that cost him half a season, a mid-career power outage, and a huge dropoff in play at age 35. He’s had enough successful comebacks to become a rarity in baseball: a highly paid star first baseman who doesn’t make his team regret a very large contract covering his 30s. But while he’s gotten off to slow starts before, a .122/.278/.135 line is something else,” the latest Fangraphs piece read.

Joey Votto — who has gotten more involved in social media in recent years — took exception to the article.

“Five months to go. Enjoy the show,” he said on Twitter.

Joey Votto is obviously only one of many problems on a Reds team that made it clear they were planning a full rebuild by selling off a lot of core pieces in the offseason.

The best case scenario for Votto is that he starts to turn the corner prior to the Trade Deadline and gets a shot to join a contender by the end of the of the season.

After watching Joey Votto tear it up for the past 15 years, it’s incredibly hard to imagine that he has nothing to offer a team that’s serious about winning.

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