After spending his entire 17-year career with the Cincinnati Reds, Votto signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays prior to the start of the 2024-25 campaign. On Wednesday, Votto announced on Instagram that he has retired from MLB.
The Reds selected Votto out of high school with the 44th overall pick in the 2002 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut in 2007 and showed what kind of player he was about to become, slashing .321/.360/.548 with a 16.9% strikeout rate and .226 ISO in 89 plate appearances. The following season, he became a full-time starter and slashed .297/.368/.506 with a 10% walk rate, 17.3% strikeout rate and .209 ISO in 589 plate appearances. He finished the season with 24 home runs, 69 runs, 84 RBI and seven stolen bases.
Votto hit at least 25 home runs in seven seasons with three of those with over 35 homers. But it wasn’t the power that defined his game. It was the plate discipline and awareness of the strike zone that made Votto the player he was.
From 2009 to 2018, Votto posted an OBP over .400 nine times, leading MLB in seven of those seasons. The most incredible stat from that span, though, was that he popped up in the infield only eight times.
For his career, Votto finished with a .294/.409/.511 slash in 8,746 plate appearances. He was named an All-Star six times, was the NL MVP in 2010 and won his only Gold Glove in 2011.
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