What if the Reds Had Traded Joey Votto? Elly De La Cruz Faces a Similar Question

The conversation around Elly De La Cruz and whether the Cincinnati Reds should trade him won't end this offseason. With so much uncertainty, the Reds could make rash decisions, and trading De La Cruz for prospects is a real possibility. 

Earlier this week, Joey Votto suggested that the Reds could trade Elly De La Cruz for Josue De Paula, the Dodgers' No. 1 prospect. 

Votto took it a step further on Thursday, saying on the Foul Territory podcast that the Reds should trade De La Cruz for a ton of prospects. He said the Reds won’t be able to sign him because he’ll make around $650 million on his upcoming contract. 

Funnily enough, the Reds were in a similar situation around 2015 or 2016 with Joey Votto. Reds' former play-by-play commentator, Marty Brennaman, told a local radio show that the Reds should trade Votto, as he was eating up a big chunk of the Reds’ payroll and was far from his 2010 MVP form. 

Votto also said on the same podcast that he doesn’t think the Reds should have signed him then, and that they should have traded him for prospects 4.5-5 years into his contract. After Votto won the MVP in 2010, Cincinnati signed him to a 10-year, $225 million contract, making it the biggest contract any Red has ever signed. 

It’s an amazing amount of transparency for a player to show, especially because he said the Reds, as a team in the same situation as the Guardians, Brewers, and Rays, who are currently in the playoffs, shouldn’t pay big-time players. Votto said the Reds should have offered him 50 cents on the dollar, and he would have said no. 

Thinking about the butterfly effect of trading Votto and how it would affect the Reds today is interesting. They would have gotten some high-value prospects in return, while also freeing up a lot of money to sign other free agents over the years. He’s the kind of player where you could say the entire organization would look different right now if the Reds had gotten rid of him. 

Another interesting layer to this whole situation is Votto’s public interest in becoming the Reds’ general manager and, in a sense, telling everyone his exact plan if he ever got the job. It sounds like he’d trade Elly De La Cruz as quickly as possible and not sign high-value free agents. That is what teams like the Guardians, Rays, and Brewers have done, trading players like Randy Arozarena and Corbin Burnes for prospects who are now helping them chase a World Series.