Joey Votto’s slow start to the 2021 season has some fans asking a silly question: Is he overrated?
The answer is simple: Votto is just the opposite.
Votto has been underrated for his entire 15-year career.
The veteran has one of the most mind-blowing Baseball Reference pages you’ll see, and it feels safe to say that anyone who has taken a look at his season-by-season numbers would agree with the sentiment that Votto is under-appreciated.
While playing for a small-market team like the Cincinnati Reds likely hasn’t done Votto any favors, fans should still appreciate the player that he is before he retires from the game.
Accolades
Votto has led the National League in OBP seven times, walks five times, intentional walks three times, and OPS twice.
He is a career .303 hitter with a .933 OPS.
Votto has finished in the top-seven of the MVP race six times and won the award in 2010.
Those are some ridiculous accomplishments.
When referencing Votto’s performance over recent years, we need to keep in mind that he is aging.
Votto is currently in his age-37 season.
Although he’s not what he used to be, he’s still posting numbers that you can live with.
Since 2019, Votto has an OPS of .771.
The league average OPS over that span is about .740.
He’s no longer playing at an All-Star-caliber level, but he’s still a net positive offensively.
Joey Votto has 6,563 career plate appearances and has never popped out to 1st base, pitcher, or catcher pic.twitter.com/C0cqCalbpS
— Bush Leaguer (@BushLeague101) July 20, 2018
(The stat in the above tweet no longer rings true, but it was a wild one while it lasted.)
HOF Discussion
The average career WAR for a Hall of Famer generally falls between 50 and 70.
Votto is at 60.8 for his career.
He went on an incredible run from 2010-2017 during which he averaged a WAR of 6.0 a season.
Votto had an OPS+ of 163 in that same span, implying that his adjusted OPS was 63 percent better than league average.
Prime Votto was one of the best players around.
MLB first basemen since 1901 with a slash line of 300/400/500 or better (min 7000 PA):
• Lou Gehrig*
• Jimmie Foxx*
• Todd Helton+
• Joey Votto^* HOF
+ HOF eligible
^ Active— Austin J. Eich (@Eich_AJ) January 8, 2020
The Hall of Fame discussion is an area where Votto tends to get the respect he deserves.
Most fans and media members would agree that Votto’s ticket to Cooperstown has been punched.
Whether or not he gets in on the first ballot remains to be seen, but he certainly has a strong case at doing so.
Cincinnati’s Shortcomings
It’s a genuine shame that Votto has never been able to be a part of a deep postseason run.
He is under contract through the 2023 season (at which point Votto might decide to call it quits), so a playoff run between now and then is not completely out of the question.
It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year, though—the Reds are currently sitting in fourth place in the National League Central.
The Reds have made the playoffs four times with Votto, but each of those seasons ended with elimination in either the Wild Card round or in the Divisional round.
Votto went just 10-for-41 in total over his four postseason campaigns, a sample size that is too small to come to any conclusions about his playoff legacy.
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