'Toronto boy' Votto eager to trade in bib for Major League uniform

DUNEDIN, FLA. -- Joey Votto is a boy again, trying out for the local team.

He sat at his new locker in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse Sunday morning and pulled two fresh, black bats from their long, plastic sleeves. He wore blue from head to foot, not a scuff or a crease yet on his blue sweater, blue shorts, blue hat, blue bag. It all looked so new after a life lived in red.

To Votto’s right sat Wes Parsons and Paolo Espino, to his left Cam Eden and Orelvis Martinez, a combined 133 MLB games between his new neighbors. For many of his 17 years with the Reds, these lockers would have sat unoccupied, the empty plots of land that veterans and superstars earn to spill their belongings into.

That’s not how Votto sees himself now, though. He’s taking his Minor League deal with the Blue Jays so literally, down to the very definition of each word.

“I feel like a boy. I feel like a kid,” Votto said. “I’m just excited to take this challenge on. I think this goes back to the 15-year-old version of me who just wanted to make it, who fell in love with the sport and with competition, with being my best self. All of the achievements along the way are nice, but this is still the core of me.”

Votto looks at all of this so romantically. The Florida hotel room and Uber ride to the complex excite him again, taking him back two decades to the Canadian kid who hadn’t yet built one of the best baseball careers of a generation.

He first hints at it, then gets to the point directly. Starting in Triple-A Buffalo isn’t just something he’s open to, it’s something he expected when he signed this contract. He wants to “make it” to the big leagues again.

“I’m on a Minor League contract. I’m in Major League camp. I’m what’s called a non-roster invite. I’m not on the Major league roster,” Votto said. “As I prep every single day, not only is that my attitude, that’s the reality of the scenario. The idea that I’m going to come in and presume anything is a disconnect from reality, but also from what I’m about. I want to work. I want to compete. I want to fit in. I want to get along with guys. I want to be liked. I want to represent myself, my family and my country well. This is the perfect opportunity.”

In a perfect world, Votto is in Goodyear, Arizona right now, playing out the remaining days of his incredible career in the same Cincinnati Reds jersey he’s worn for 17 years. The game isn’t often that kind, though, and if it couldn’t happen with the Reds, Votto knew he wanted it to happen with the Blue Jays.

That’s why Votto picked up the phone recently and called general manager Ross Atkins. He wanted a shot to come in and prove himself. He wanted to try out for the Blue Jays.

“I was a boy,” Votto said. “At some point, I’m going to post pictures of me in a Blue Jays bib. I was a Toronto boy. I grew up in Mimico, Lakeshore and Park Lawn, with a little bit of time in Oakville. My family worked in downtown Toronto. I was a Blue Jays fan. I watched [Joe] Carter hit the walk-off home run. I watched us win against the Braves on the road. Those were the most exciting moments of my childhood.”

Watched “us” win. Votto, like any kid who grew up begging their parents to watch the Blue Jays bat one more time before their bedtime, has the Blue Jays deep down in his DNA.

The realities of baseball so rarely leave room for stories like this. Votto’s story is already the one Canadian kids dream of now, just like Votto did all those years ago playing catch in his backyard in Mimico, he and his father trying to catch the ball like Devon White.

At 40, Votto isn’t done with baseball. It’s given him so much, but he’s given it right back. His relationship with the game is so human, so intimate. He knows how unlikely the storybook ending is, but he’s still Joey Votto. He has to try.

“I may never play a game for the Toronto Blue Jays,” Votto said. “I may never wear a Major League uniform again, but this is my opportunity to give it a shot.”