Joey Votto news latest gut-punch in tough season for Cincinnati Reds

With the news that Joey Votto is done for the 2022 season, another domino has fallen in what has been a dismal campaign for the Cincinnati Reds.

Joey Votto’s season coming to a premature end is the exclamation mark for what has been a horrid season for the Cincinnati Reds

According to reports, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto will have surgery on Friday to repair a torn rotator cuff and is officially done for the 2022 season. According to Bobby Nightengale of The Enquirer and Cincinnati.com, Votto has been trying to play through the injury (which he says occurred back in 2015 for the first time) for three to four months, which amounts to most of the season.

The timeline for Votto to return is roughly six months, meaning he should be ready for action when the Reds gather for spring training next February.

Also from Nightengale in this article:

"Votto will end the season with a .205 batting average, .319 on-base percentage, 11 homers, 18 doubles and 41 RBI in 91 games. He was hitless in his final 22 at-bats and he failed to reach base safely in his last four games, the first time that happened in his career, according to Elias Sports Bureau."

Votto’s disappointing season is just one piece of a multitude of head-shaking things that have happened to the Reds this year. Cincinnati started the season 3-22 and the team president, Phil Castellini didn’t endear himself to fans with his, “Well, where are you gonna go?” message when fans demanded a better product on the field early in the season.

Defending NL Rookie of the Year Jonathan India has been banged up this year and recently had a scary situation unfold when he was hit by a pitch in the leg during the Field of Dreams game and had to be airlifted to a local hospital when fears about the swelling arose.

Cincinnati has also been in fire sale mode since last offseason, parting ways with a number of key players, including Luis Castillo, Jesse Winker, and Eugenio Suarez, all traded to the Seattle Mariners and helping that team fight for its first postseason appearance since 2001.

Losing Joey Votto for the rest of the season is another sign for the Cincinnati Reds that this campaign was simply doomed from the very beginning.