Votto likely played his last home game in Cincinnati today, and with his meager 2023 performance (203/306/441 in 61 games), he isn’t getting an opportunity to chase a ring somewhere else next year. So I think he’ll retire.
Is he a Hall of Famer? Here are the numbers:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/vottojo01.shtml
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/joey-votto/4314/stats?position=1B
On the plus side, Votto is 57th all-time in OPS+ (144) and is similarly well within the top 100 all-time in virtually every advanced measures of offensive performance, and is in the top 50 in some metrics. He led the NL in OBP seven times, including four years in a row (2010-13). He also won a Gold Glove, and while he probably didn’t deserve that, he was consistently an average to above-average defender through his prime years.
The case against? Due to injuries, he had a relatively short career — he’s going to wind up with about 300 fewer PAs than Jim Rice, who had a short career by HOF standards. Hell, Votto only had about 900 PAs more than Kirby Puckett, who had just about the shortest career of any Hall of Famer in the past 50 years. As a result, Votto falls short of traditional HOF benchmarks: 2134 hits, 356 HRs. He’s also going to roll up short of a .300 career BA (.295). In addition, he was only a 6-time All-Star — which shouldn’t be a credential (or lack thereof), but is definitely used by some less sophisticated HOF voters as a gauge of who was great versus merely good.
So, what does SoSH think? (I set up the poll with four options, so you can opine on both what you think should happen and what you think the BBWAA will do.)
Is he a Hall of Famer? Here are the numbers:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/vottojo01.shtml
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/joey-votto/4314/stats?position=1B
On the plus side, Votto is 57th all-time in OPS+ (144) and is similarly well within the top 100 all-time in virtually every advanced measures of offensive performance, and is in the top 50 in some metrics. He led the NL in OBP seven times, including four years in a row (2010-13). He also won a Gold Glove, and while he probably didn’t deserve that, he was consistently an average to above-average defender through his prime years.
The case against? Due to injuries, he had a relatively short career — he’s going to wind up with about 300 fewer PAs than Jim Rice, who had a short career by HOF standards. Hell, Votto only had about 900 PAs more than Kirby Puckett, who had just about the shortest career of any Hall of Famer in the past 50 years. As a result, Votto falls short of traditional HOF benchmarks: 2134 hits, 356 HRs. He’s also going to roll up short of a .300 career BA (.295). In addition, he was only a 6-time All-Star — which shouldn’t be a credential (or lack thereof), but is definitely used by some less sophisticated HOF voters as a gauge of who was great versus merely good.
So, what does SoSH think? (I set up the poll with four options, so you can opine on both what you think should happen and what you think the BBWAA will do.)