In March of 2022, Joey Votto and Jesse Winker were sitting in the batting cage at the Cincinnati Reds’ spring training complex in Arizona, and they were talking about hitting homers off of left-handed pitchers. Winker was coming off of an All-Star season, and he expected to follow that up with another standout year on a Reds team that was looking to build off of a competitive 2021 season.
Then, Winker was called into Reds manager David Bell’s office. He learned that he was getting traded to the Seattle Mariners along with third baseman Eugenio Súarez. Winker was shocked and emotional.