'I assumed I was coming back': Joey Votto 'grateful' for Blue Jays, chance to prove himself

DUNEDIN, Florida — The practice fields were empty, the big-league side of the Toronto Blue Jays spring training complex quiet except for a groundskeeper who watered a back field and another who dragged the dirt of the main field with a small utility tractor.

And except for one more solitary figure on the patch of turf behind the Blue Jays clubhouse running sprints.

The only thing more jarring than turning a corner to find Joey Votto already well into an hours-long workout almost immediately after clearing his team physical Saturday was the bright new Blue Jays cap on his head and the blue team hoodie he wore.

“I’ve been champing at the bit,” said the Cincinnati Reds legend, whose first and unexpected foray into free agency led him here, on a minor-league contract in March, after four months of “growth” that included at least a few moments of feeling “a little lost.”

All Votto ever wanted was a chance

Votto, 40, said this is “exactly” what he wants, just a chance to earn his place this year, prove he can perform at a high level again in the big leagues. Or not. That’s what he’s here to find out.

No matter how strange it might be to him to put on a different uniform for the first time in his professional life. Right?

“Not at all,” he said. “This is a major league uniform.

“I know where I wanted to finish my career, but it wasn’t in my hands.”

Taking his best shot to keep playing, after more than a year of rehabbing and strengthening his surgically repaired shoulder to its best playing shape since before the injury, is firmly in his hands now.

“I want to be a winning player. I want to be a championship-caliber player. I want to be one of the guys. I want to fit in. I want to help my teammates. I want to do all these things,” Votto said during a conversation with The Enquirer at the Jays facility over the weekend.

Votto wants to be the one to decide if he's done

“But I think if you were to ask any major league player, it’s their career. It’s not an organization’s career. It’s their career. I want to decide when I’m done,” he said. “This has given me the opportunity to do that.

“It’s a relationship between me and the game, and if the game tells me I’m done I bow out. And if I say I’m done, I get that answer also.”

Before he got the call from Reds president Nick Krall that the team intended to buy out his 2024 contract option and cut ties, Votto said he thought this opportunity he’s getting with the Blue Jays would come with the only organization he’d played for since being drafted in the second round as a teenager — even if it meant the same “tryout” terms as Toronto’s deal.

Former Reds teammates who talked about his “intense” speech after last year’s elimination on the final weekend of the season in St. Louis said they sensed Votto was passing the torch as he saw the writing on the wall.

“Absolutely not,” Votto said. “I assumed I was coming back.”

That was especially true during the final home game last season, six days before the speech, even as fans gave him multiple ovations in an apparent farewell gesture.

"In St. Louis, I was uncertain,” he said. “But in Cincinnati I had no doubts that I was going to come back and finish my career as a Red in any way shape or form. Whether it’s a tryout or a small contract or an option picked up, I thought for sure.”

The speech to the team was about the power in that room that night to turn the fortunes of the franchise dramatically, he said, to “change the trajectory of an organization,” the way Steph Curry and Klay Thompson had done with the once-ordinary Golden State Warriors.

“It wasn’t me saying goodbye at all. Not at all,” Votto said. “It was my way of saying, ‘OK, we didn’t make it this year? F— that. Next year, let’s go nuts.’ “

If Votto assumed he would be back in Cincinnati, it wasn’t because he assumed special treatment or extra credit for his All-Star and MVP history with the club.

Votto wants to prove he belongs in the big leagues

“I loathe the idea of any sort of charity at-bats and opportunities because of your legacy or what have you,” he said. “It makes me sick.”

The prove-it deal he has now, "This is what I want," he said.

“I recognize the fans are smart. They know when someone stinks. They know when someone’s overpaid,” he said. “They know what players make. They know when players are over the hill. They understand the context of the game."

And there seemed to be almost as many of them wishing him the best somewhere else than wanting him back at 40.

“I recognized that I was off for the last couple of years. But they’re not in my shoes," he said. "They’re not on the (physical training) table postgame, and trying to work through a swing, and trying to work through a game rehabbing an injury.

“I know the experience of I’m not quite myself,” he said. “But all they see is the stats and all they see is the salary, and rightfully so they should criticize and be dissatisfied and move on. And front offices and coaches, I get it. Even teammates: ‘This guy . . . sucks. What are we trying to do here?’ “

Regardless of the effort behind the scenes, he said, he was tired of getting less results than he wanted, too.

"So in my head, I was like, no problem. Let’s just make it easy on an organization,” he said. “I’ll come back and if it’s a ‘no’ and I’m still craving playing, then I’ll go with another team. That’s where my head’s at right here in Toronto.

“I’ve said that to the GM and the manager,” he said. “ ‘I promise you I’ll work toward being as ready as I can. I’ll show good performance. If not (whistles), see you, adios, that’s enough.”

Blue Jays have plan; it was not just a courtesy call

The Blue Jays seem to be looking at Votto as an option for their opening roster, even with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as their everyday first baseman and Justin Turner and Dan Vogelbach as would-be designated hitters.

Votto, who said he’s worked enough all winter to believe he’ll be ready for games after Sunday’s first official workouts with the Jays, said he’s “fully prepared” to open the season in the minors and continue working if that’s what the team wants.

That doesn’t seem likely if he’s as healthy and ready as he said he is. Toronto fans have buzzed about bringing Votto home in a trade for years or in free agency before he signed the biggest contract in Reds history.

“He’s a legend,” said Blue Jays All-Star closer Jordan Romano, who grew up just outside of Toronto.

“It’s really exciting for the team and definitely for the fans,” Romano said. “He’s a hometown guy and one of the best Canadians to ever do it.”

Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson, whose next-door neighbor in Terrace Park when he played at Mariemont High was Thom Brennaman, not only has an appreciation for what Votto meant to Cincinnati but also a sense of what he might mean to Toronto if he’s on the team this year.

“There’s a poetic aspect of it, for sure,” Swanson said. “But I think he still brings great value to the field, which is even cooler. He’s in good shape. He’s come in obviously prepared. I think he is going to put himself in the position to help us succeed and help himself succeed.

“If he’s healthy, he’s going to compete, and I think he’ll shock a lot of people.”

After processing the situation, 'Let's get to work'

It took getting over his own shock to the system — and then enduring a four-month process he couldn’t see coming — for Votto to put himself in that position.

“There was a part of me that was scared, because it becomes uncharted waters for me,” Votto said of getting the call from Krall and learning he was no longer a Red. “It’s intimidating because I’d never as an adult been by myself. I was always tied to an organization and specifically them.

“But quickly, I was like, ‘No, this is good. You need this as a man, as an individual. You need this to grow. And what is the next step you need to take? Are you done?’ I answered that quickly: No. So what’s the answer? Let’s get to work.”

That meant up to eight hours a week of rehab work and 20 hours a week training.

“I’m grateful I stuck it out,” he said. “I’m proud of the work I’ve put in. And I’m happy with where I’m at. And now I’m excited to find out if I have skills to be able to continue to play.”

Votto might have been able to wait out a guaranteed big-league offer.

“I sensed that they were broaching, but it was getting too late,” he said. “You can see how free agency is moving. There’s lots of really good players that still don’t have jobs. And I’m not one of those guys right now. I was not the starting DH for the All-Star team (J.D. Martinez). I was not the Cy Young winner last year (Blake Snell). So who am I to demand a major-league job when those guys don’t have them?”

It wasn’t exactly the kind of free agent market he or anyone else might have expected for a six-time, lefty-hitting All-Star with Gold Gloves and an MVP, even at 40, even coming off a recent injury.

And Votto said he’s not trying to figure it out.

Besides, for him it was always going to be more personal and transformative than just seeking another contract, no matter where he went.

“For so much of my adult life, I’ve known where I was going to be. Everything was guaranteed. I was in control of everything. Everything was familiar,” he said.

Votto had plenty of time for self-assessment

The sudden free agency, he said, was “more about maturity, character, individual growth.”

Dealing with more unknowns, less power over what was next.

“At times I struggled with it. I felt a little lost. I felt like I wanted things to get solved quicker than they were getting solved. I felt distracted,” he said. “At times I felt stressed.

“But the majority — the vast majority — of it was growth and learning about myself and things I need to change.”

Things like prioritizing relationships, he said, with family, friends and “taking care of myself.” And dealing with professional displacement “that adults deal with all the time.”

It also drove home “how much I love the effort to perform well, the experience of being a teammate, the experience of making friends and building forever bonds with people,” he said, “and how much I love being a major league player and also how hard it is to maintain that.”

Bottom line: “I’m grateful for the free agent experience,” Votto said. “And I’m thankful that a team was willing to sign me and give me a chance. And more than anything this is an exciting team for me.

“We grew up Blue Jays fans,” he said. “I’ve got a picture that has me in a bib that says ‘My little Blue Jay’ or something like that. I’ll share it sometime on social media.”

He has a home near Rogers Centre, with family nearby.

“My heart was set on returning and finishing my career in one uniform. There’s no doubt about that,” Votto said. “And when I found out that wasn’t going to be the case, there were few options that I’d be willing to accept this sort of deal.”

Votto seems energized as he starts his next chapter, leaving Cincinnati, crossing the border, changing his uniform — even his number (now 37). He said he’s “excited.” And even his loudest critics seem to hope it goes well for him.

“It is going well,” he said. “This is exactly what I wanted. I wanted the opportunity with the pressure off to be able to prove that I’m healthy again. I’m 40, man. You’re threading a needle trying to play well in this game at this age. It’s a difficult game.

“I’m confident and optimistic,” he added. “But I do recognize that the odds are against me.

“And I love that.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Joey Votto 'assumed I was coming back' but ready for new life with Jays