Red Reporter: Joey Votto Not Just About Dollars And WAR

Joey Votto will be on the Reds until 2023. That's a year after Soylent Green is supposed to take place. That sets up a better Prince Fielder joke, but we can only use the cards that we're dealt. And any time a player is signed for a decade for many, many millions, it becomes fashionable at how much value the player will be returning in ten years' time when he's 53, or whatever.

The numbers can project what Joey Votto is going to be worth over the life of this contract, and how much every dollar paid to him is worth in free market wins available, but in this rare instance they utterly fail at fully understanding the real value of Joey Votto the Red. This has been one of the league's most moribund, dysfunctional, impotent, and inconsequential franchises for a number of years...

Not only did the Yankees develop a rare talent like Derek Jeter, but when he approached free agency there was never a question that he would be re-signed. This winter, with two years before scheduled free agency, Votto was one of the most talked-about impending free agents. The Reds could never afford a talent like his, not in a market like this.

There was a good chance that the Reds would trade Votto as he approached free agency, or that they'd do something similar to what the Mets did with Jose Reyes: squeeze every last drop out of him and his production before letting him leave via free agency.

Instead, the Reds gave Votto enough money to purchase Ontario and have it platinum-plated. It was a very un-Reds move. But it's a franchise with a history of stars, and they wanted to make sure that they could keep their homegrown MVP around for the next decade. (And TV deal, which is going to be negotiated in a few years. This is important.)