Joey Votto
The first current Canadian baseball player you can probably think of is Joey Votto, and it is for a good reason.
Born in Etobicoke, Ontario, Joey Votto has been an absolute machine at the plate, producing incredible slash lines year after year. His career MLB slash line is an outstanding .310/.427/.529 over 13 seasons, which is quite frankly an absurd number for any major league hitter.
Votto went away from the norm for Canadian baseball players, as he was selected in the second round of the 2002 amateur draft by the Cincinnati Reds while playing for his Canadian high school. He would forego his college career and would move right into the Cincinnati Reds minor league system, working his way through the ranks until his major league debut in September of 2007.
Since 2008, Votto has been a staple in the Reds lineup every game, appearing in more than 145 games in 8 of the 13 seasons he has been in the majors (this number is a bit skewed since 2007 was short lived and 2019 is only 10 games in). He has even had 2 seasons where he has appeared in each game for the Reds, in 2013 and 2017.
If his slash line wasn’t enough, he also won the NL MVP award and Hank Aaron Award in 2010, a Gold Glove award (1st base) and has been named an All-Star 6 times in his career. He has also won the Tip O’Neill Award, given to best Canadian baseball player in the MLB, 7 times.
While Joey Votto did hail from the Great White North, he also was quite outspoken about Canadian baseball. When asked about James Paxton‘s no hitter (he too is a fellow Canadian, spoiler alert), he stated to Yahoo sports podcast that quote, “As far as Toronto, and Canadian baseball, and the country of Canada, and (James Paxton) being Canadian, I don’t care at all.”
That really didn’t sit well with many Canadians, but Votto did later apologize and said that he felt bitter at the time because of how much time he spent in America playing and was ashamed and embarrassed by his comments.
Like a true Canadian, he said sorry.