Joey Votto Announces His Retirement & Should Be A First Ballot Hall Of Famer

Joey Votto announced his retirement with that Instagram post tonight. He has had an incredible career and seems a genuinely good dude. He has spent this season either hurt or in the minor leagues with the Blue Jays. It's gone terribly. In 31 games, he's hitting .165/.298/.271. I've been a Votto fan for his whole career and I am happy he did so badly.

It meant he will stay a lifetime Cincinnati Red. What good would being called up to the deadass Blue Jays have done? I know he's from Canada but from a legacy point of view, him staying a Red is a good thing. Now, he'll join legends and lifetime Reds Johnny Bench and Barry Larkin in the Hall Of Fame.

Not only is he going to join them in Cooperstown, I think he does it in less than 5 years because he should and will get in on the first ballot.

Joey Votto batted .294/.409/.511 for his entire career. He won an NL MVP in 2010 (and  was runner-up in 2017). He led the league in On-Base Percentage SEVEN times! That .409 career OBP is better than Jim Thome, Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson and Chipper Jones had.

I think you can make a real case that Votto is the most underrated hitter of this century. He never played in an LCS, much less a World Series. Votto detractors can point to his lousy post-season track record as a big reason why. He never even had an extra-base hit. But, I think that's kind of unfair.

He only played on four playoff teams in his entire career. That amounted to 11 total games. The bigger issue is that he played for a small market team that didn't put great teams on the field. They did have four playoff teams but those teams had a combined winning percentage of .559. That's barely a 90 win pace in a full season. These weren't juggernaut teams. Joey Votto didn't get to play on a great team for his entire career.

Because of that, he has been so underappreciated. Take Mark Teixeira, who had a wonderful career. He played in a big market and it feels like he got much more recognition in his career by fans. He also only got 1.5% of Hall Of Fame votes when he was on the ballot and was quickly off the ballot. Joey Votto was better than Teixeira and I think the baseball writers will see what many casual fans didn't.

Peter Joneleit. Shutterstock Images.

When Votto gets elected to the Hall Of Fame in the Summer of 2029, he'll join another legendary first baseman in Miguel Cabrera. If you don't think Votto should get into the Hall on the first ballot, check this out:

Joey Votto: .294/.409/.511 with a 64.5 WAR

Miguel Cabrera: .306/.382/.518 with a 67.1 WAR

Joey Votto was a pretty awesome baseball player. Seems like a great guy and teammate too. I'll miss seeing him play. The Reds haven't won a World Series in decades but they sure were lucky to see a legend like Votto play there for 17 years.