Votto Contract Details

Well, if you (and if you by you, I mean Josh) hated the contract Joey Votto signed with the Reds the other day, you're really going to hate it now.  John Fay of the Cincinnati Inquirer has the details on the deal.

"First here are the numbers...$5.5 million salary in 2011, $9.5 million salary in 2012 and $17 million salary in 2013...Signing bonus of $6 million. He gets $2.5 million now, $1.5 million in 2012 and $2 million in 2014. Note the $17 million salary with the bonus of $2 million in 2014. That’s basically a $19 million salary for the 2013 season. So adding years would have likely cost at least $20 million per. That’s very frightening territory for the Reds.  I’ve had an insider tell me that they can’t afford a $20 million player."

Yes, you read that correctly.  The Reds will essentially be paying Joey Votto $19M in 2013, if you figure his compensation the way Fay does.  This explains why the Reds were fine with the idea of only buying out his arbitration seasons, and not his first few years of free agency.  The Reds simply could not afford to do so.  Unless the Reds see an unexpected influx of revenue, it looks like Joey Votto's days in Cincinnati are numbered.