On August 25th of 2020, the Cincinnati Reds were nearly halfway through their abbreviated, pandemic-shortened campaign. Through 28 of the team’s 60 games that regular season, they were, and Joey Votto owned a .647 OPS as of that day.
We know he got benched. We know he completely overhauled his swing. We know he mashed to the tune of a .941 OPS the rest of the way that year.
Votto’s resurgence soaked into the full 2021 season, thank god, but it wasn’t the linear, meteoric rise we’d all hoped for. While his start to 2021 was mercifully more potent than the year before, he was still sitting on a .