Joey Votto retires from MLB after 17 seasons

Joey Votto retires from MLB after 17 seasons

First baseman Joey Votto has retired from MLB after 17 seasons, he announced Wednesday evening on Instagram. He played all 17 of his major league seasons with the Cincinnati Reds.

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Votto, 40, signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays in March. But he only played 31 combined games across three minor league levels with Toronto. He had a combined .569 OPS, including a .489 OPS in 51 Triple-A plate appearances.

He was one of the best first baseman of his era, especially at the plate. He slashed .294/.409/.511 for his career with a 144 OPS+, crushing 356 home runs, 459 doubles, 22 triples and 1,144 RBIs. Votto was known for having an elite eye with elite bat-to-ball skills, sporting a career 15.6 percent walk rate with nearly as many walks (1,365) as strikeouts (1,640) for his career.

The 40-year-old won one NL MVP in 2010 after leading the National League in on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS (1.024), blasting 37 home runs and 113 RBIs. The six-time All-Star finished in the top-10 in MVP voting six other times, including coming second behind then-Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (who hit 59 home runs) in 2017.

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