Why Joey Votto won't say if he wants to be back with Cincinnati Reds next year

A Chicago columnist asked Joey Votto a couple weeks ago about whether he might be playing his final career game at Wrigley Field and didn’t get an answer as much as an image, or maybe a vibe, from the Cincinnati Reds’ enigmatic icon.

“The sun was setting, the breeze had died down,” Votto said of what he noticed from the visitors dugout the previous night, “and all I saw was the crowd, the beautiful white uniforms that the Cubs wear, and just a setting so picturesque, it really hit me.

“What a special place to get to be. It was a truly rare moment in my career.”

Rare? Votto has played more games at Wrigley (118) than any visiting ballpark.

But maybe rare is in the eye of a 39-year-old beholder these days.

MLB 2023 postseason schedule: World Series begins Oct. 27

Especially when it comes to whatever might be next for one of the most significant players in franchise history.

“He does not look like a player that’s doing a farewell tour,” teammate Luke Maile said. “He looks like a guy that can still produce in the middle of the order for anybody.”

That’s the thing. A year after Albert Pujols produced a swan song during his farewell tour and during a season Miguel Cabrera has made clear is his last, Cincinnati’s generational counterpart has settled into a comfort zone in the midst of a rookie core after returning from a 10-month injury.

“I know it’s a younger group of guys or whatever, but you would never know,” manager David Bell said. “He’s just in the mix all the time. He’s made himself a huge part of this team.”

And this: He has an .842 OPS, including 18 walks and 17 extra-base hits in 42 games through Saturday. That included 13 homers in his first 39 games — a 54-homer pace for a full season.

“And it seems like they’ve all been big for us,” Bell said.

He homered in his first game in nearly a year, hit two in his fourth game back and has become a weapon again in the lineup of a National League contender.

Where he goes next involves the most profound personnel decision for the Reds in recent memory, if not for the 17-year Reds fixture.

Votto, who is barely eight weeks returned from shoulder and biceps surgery and who turns 40 in less than a month, said he hasn’t spent much time thinking about how much longer he might play.

As for whether he thinks he’ll be back with the Reds next year? “I don’t know.”

And the obvious next question?

“Do I want to be?” he said before pausing for a beat. “I don’t want to answer that question.”

Maybe his play down the stretch will answer some of that question.

From the team perspective, the decision should be a no-brainer. The team holds a $20 million option for next season on a 10-year, $225 million contract that Votto has arguably outperformed.

Exercising the $7 million buyout and/or asking Votto to return at a renegotiated number for next year might as well be a slap in the face of the franchise, if not a fan base that has embraced Votto as one of Cincinnati’s own, among the likes of native sons Barry Larkin and Pete Rose.

“Being from the area, he’s the first player who comes to mind as somebody who’s represented the franchise throughout my life,” said Maile, who graduated from Covington Catholic two years after Votto debuted.

“We’re very lucky to have him,” Maile added, “and he’s continued to produce, which is just — I want to say amazing, but at the same time he’s been doing so many amazing things for so long, you kind of come to expect it.”

The value goes well beyond that, said Maile, who got a chance for the first time this season to have Votto as a teammate.

“His presence alone is worth a lot,” Maile said. “His presence is worth his weight in gold.”

But don’t expect Votto to sign off on the idea that the organization owes anything to a player, regardless of stature, regardless of his place in local history, regardless of how much anybody else believes it’s deserved, regardless of how personal it might be.

“I don’t think like that,” Votto said. “I think about performing well, performing well and doing my job capably. That’s really all I’m focused on.

“As far as some sort of indebted thing, I completely don’t believe in that or agree with that,” he added. “I’m just focused over the next two months on being healthy, performing well, continuing to get healthy, continuing to get stronger and more calibrated with my swing and finishing well.”

To that end, he said, he feels “much better each and every day.”

And his numbers back it up. He delivered a three-hit game as recently as his last game at home, Wednesday. And over the last two weeks (11 games through Saturday) he’s hitting .297 with five homers and a 1.096 OPS.

Bell said he’s been appreciative and impressed with not only the production but the way Votto bought into the team’s new youth-driven direction this season from spring training while still going through rehab, and then seamlessly become part of the daily fabric of a team that includes players literally born the year he was drafted.

“He’s been a huge part of everything we do,” Bell said.

And while it’s tempting to think that with this year under the belts of all those young players, a veteran influence such as Votto’s might not be as necessary next year, that entirely depends on the veteran you’re talking about, Bell said.

“In Joey’s case, it’s great having his veteran presence, because he’s a great teammate who cares about everybody,” said Bell, who played for six organizations during a 12-year big-league career. “Not everybody’s like that. It’s special what Joey has done individually as a player. But to me what makes it really meaningful is what he has done as a teammate and a person.”

Teammates tell stories his constant presence as a mentor and extra coach around the clubhouse and batting cages even as he continued a grueling injury rehab.

“A lot of us really appreciate all the things he does to strengthen our team in many ways, not just on the field,” Bell said.

Whether he’ll be back to help strengthen this core’s 2024 assault on the NL Central, the man who ranks among the five most tenured lifetime Reds said he’s staying focused on the final seven weeks of a pennant race that has been too long in coming for most Reds and fans — perhaps none more so than Votto.

Only four other players have spent their entire careers with the Reds for as many seasons: shortstops Davey Concepcion (19 years, 1970-88) and Larkin (19 years, 1986-2004), second baseman Bid McPhee (18 years, 1982-99) and catcher Johnny Bench (17 years, 1967-83).

Asked what it would mean to him to get another shot at the postseason at this point in his career, Votto tried to dodge it by talking about team concepts.

But personally. As a guy about to turn 40. Closing in on the end of a 17th big-league season.

“When you play a bit of time, you still think you’re a young player, a rookie,” he said. “You still think you’re at the beginning of your career. I try so hard not to look backwards because  then that offers perspective. I try to just stay hungry and try to remember what my job is: to help the team win.”

Votto has been in the playoffs four times in his career, not since 2013 in a full season, and he’s still looking for the ring that all those players who spent as many with the Reds before him during the World Series era won.

The opportunity that this season might offer? Or next season?

“It’s precious,” said Bell, who missed rings with both the 116-win Seattle Mariners of 2001 and the 2002 San Francisco Giants, who lost in seven games to the Anaheim Angels.

“And I think the longer you play or the longer you’ve been in the game, naturally you’re going to realize that the opportunities have a tendency to be few and far between, no matter how great of a player you are or how great of an organization you’re a part of. They’re very rare opportunities.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting another opportunity to do that.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds' biggest personnel call in years: Joey Votto's option