All-Decade Cincinnati Reds Infield
Joey Votto, First Base
- 2010-2019
- HRs: 231
- OPS+: 150.9
Awards: Most Valuable Player: First, 2010, second, 2017, third, 2015; All-Star team: 6 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018). On-base leader (7): 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018.
Votto may be the first baseman on the MLB All-Decade team. His decade-long on-base average was a spectacular .426 and his .509 slugging average, while not as dominant, was still excellent.
In Votto’s 2010 MVP season, he led the Reds to 91 wins and the NL Central title on the basis of a personal best 37 home runs, 113 RBIs, and league-leading on-base (.424) and slugging (.600) averages.
His OPS+ that season was 171, one of seven seasons during the decade that he produced an OPS+ in excess of 150.
This may be the best measure of Votto’s positional dominance in Cincinnati. He started 1,411 games during the decade, 87 percent of all games played by the Reds between 2010 and 2019. Only twice, in 2012 and 2014, did he appear in fewer than 140 games. In both 2013 and 2017, he played in every game.
Aside from Votto, only Todd Frazier played more than 60 games at first base during the decade.