The reds should not trade Votto.....but if they do, it must be to the Oakland A's where all over the hill players go to die.

With no Aug waiver trades and much less Sept roster expansion, I suppose we'll see fewer of these sorts of "go home at end of career" deals. The Jays would have to take him on for Aug and Sept which they might be happy to do if he's hitting and they need a bat but otherwise won't be of much interest to them. If Votto really wants it, I don't think anybody would object to a Sept release and an unspoken agreement that nobody claims him before Toronto.

It's of course possible Votto's not done -- even with a poor 2022, over the last 3-5 years he's averaged about a 115 OPS+ bat so he could bounce back to that and be of use to a contender in Aug/Sept. They start the season with a Votto already though in Brandon Belt but injuries or suckituude could open a Votto window. Alas, Belt is not from Cinci. :-)

Noooo! One team HOFers are cool. I'm vehemently opposed to Votto or Kershaw playing for anyone other than the Reds and Dodgers respectively, and I'll gladly tell those teams so if/when they call me up to ask my opinion on the subject!

I would imagine most people would like to see him end with a year or two on the Yankees.

This just in: Votto traded for Kershaw, Booey hardest hit!

I would imagine most people would like to see him end with a year or two on the Yankees.

The last couple of NL Central first baseman the Yankees have picked up have worked out pretty well.

The Reds do quite well on the exclusive team: Bench, Larkin, Votto, McPhee, shift Concepcion (or Larkin) to 3B. The pitching's quite thin but (a) Reds pitching has always been thin no matter how you look at it and (b) few teams have a deep exclusive rotation. Dickey, Gehrig, Jeter, DiMaggio, Mantle, Bernie, Ford and whoever else I'm forgetting for the Yanks of coruse.

and (b) few teams have a deep exclusive rotation

Surprisingly, the Royals have one of the best. Leonard, Splittorff, Busby, Rosado and Ventura. No ace, but solid top to bottom. Would have been really good if not for those ill-considered 4.2 Angel innings from Gubicza.

as I noted in another thread a month or two ago, the Mets' "only ever a Met 'ace'" is..." probably Bob Apodaca.

and that's a team that developed Seaver, Koosman, deGrom - plus Gooden, Matlack, and Darling.

7. Add Earle Combs, Tommy Heinrich

Mr. Unanimous, Mariano Rivera, and Phil Rizzuto, too.

I would think the Reds would love to trade Votto and save 20+ million

Yankees - Add guys like Mattingly, Munson, and Posada off the bench. And Guidry in their starting rotation.

They've got the infield covered; also Crosetti, Kubek & Richardson; Bobby Brown?; Thurman Munson

#7 - Yeah, the pitching staffs for most the exclusive teams are pretty weak. Too lazy to look it up right now, but IIRC there's only like a dozen one team HOF pitchers total, and Cleveland (Joss, Feller, Lemon), and the Dodgers (Koufax, Drysdale, Kershaw) have half of them.

I would think the Reds would love to trade Votto and save 20+ million

And I would think only Votto's agent thinks he's worth 20+ M at this point.

The cardinals don't have too many that I can think of

Yadier molina
Adam wainwright
Gibson
Musial
Pepper Martin
Terry Moore
Tom Pagnozzi

The Reds do quite well on the exclusive team: Bench, Larkin, Votto, McPhee, shift Concepcion (or Larkin) to 3B. The pitching's quite thin but (a) Reds pitching has always been thin no matter how you look at it and (b) few teams have a deep exclusive rotation. Dickey, Gehrig, Jeter, DiMaggio, Mantle, Bernie, Ford and whoever else I'm forgetting for the Yanks of coruse.

I was going to mention Charlie Keller, just because he's from my home county, but darn, he just had to play a few games with Detroit late in his career.

The Astros have J.R. Richard and Don Wilson, a nice 1-2 punch.

And Larry Yount, if we count no-team players. :)

Like Larkin, I'd love to see Votto go into Cooperstown with only Cincinnati on his plaque.

But if he wants to finish things out in Toronto or go chase a ring somewhere, I've got no problem with it and I imagine the team will do what it can to accommodate him. Even with a bounceback season, it's not like the Reds would get much for Votto at the deadline anyways (even if he wasn't being paid $20M) so you may as well gift him to the destination of his choosing.

The only (non-active) Angels exclusive pitcher I can think of is Scot Shields - a pretty good setup man/middle reliever during the 00s. Looking at their list of pitchers sorted by innings pitched for the franchise, I'm pretty sure Shields' 697 innings is the most for an Angels-exclusive pitcher. Jered Weaver came close, with 42 terrible innings with the Padres to end his career, but Mike Witt is the only other one near the top of that list who didn't have significant post- or pre-Angels seasons.

If you're curious what Frank Tanana has to do with this, well, he played many years after he left the Angels.

The Tigers have Trammell, Gehringer, Whitaker, Kaline, and Freehan. It then drops off pretty quickly, although Tommy Bridges is the top pitcher to spend all his time with Detroit.

Shields is one of my favorite one-team players. Ten years with the same team as a middle reliever has got to be extraordinarily rare.

If Votto is a true Canadian, he should demand a trade to the Blue Jackets.

Yeah, I'd have assumed Shields had stints with other teams.

The Cubs come tantalizingly close -- Hartnett had 165 meaningless PAs at the end, Chance 33 at the end, Sandberg 6 at the beginning, Santo a season with the Sox at the end, Cavarretta with <200 with the Sox at the end, even Charlie Root with 60 innings for the Browns at the start. Still Banks and Hack is a nice start and Kyle Hendricks is pretty good on the mound but not much left after that (unless you want to count that f'ing racist Cap Anson). By WAR, I'm pretty sure it's Addison Russell at 2B. I shudder to think who's in the OF.

EDIT: Oh-oh, with the NeL now major league, is someone like Campy still a single-team player?

Craig Swan had all but 5 of his 1236 career innings with the Mets (9th-most in franchise history), ouch.
2 bad games with the Angels, and his career was over.

so none of the top 50 were Mets-only. goes down to 467 IP at 50th, so not sure if Apodaca's 361 IP is the most by an only-Met. his 5.5 WAR is not exactly HOF ballot material......

Consider the career of Pedro Feliciano (RIP). He was:

- Drafted by the Dodgers in 1995
- Released and signed with the Reds in 2001
- Traded to the Mets in 2002, subsequently waived, picked up by the Tigers, and released in the same year
- Signed back with the Mets prior to the 2003 season
- Became a free agent and resigned with the Mets for 2004
- Contract purchased by the Fukuoka Hawks of Japan in 2005
- Signed back with the Mets in 2006
- Signed by the Yankees in 2011
- Signed back with the Mets in 2013, released, and signed with them again
- Signed with the Cardinals in 2014
- Signed with the Cubs in 2015

In all that time, the only MLB team he ever pitched for was the Mets. He had a shoulder injury with the Yankees and only pitched in the minors. He only made minor league appearances for the other US franchises, as well.

His 383.2 IP and 5.7 bWAR are probably the highest for an only-Met pitcher (assuming he counts) -- at least, they're both higher than Apodaca. His 484 appearances are definitely the most by an only-Met, as they are the second most by any pitcher in team history (behind only John Franco).

His 383.2 IP and 5.7 bWAR are probably the highest for an only-Met pitcher (assuming he counts)

Yes, he counts.

interesting re Feliciano !

damn, he died at age 45.

and yes, I stipulate that his IP counts as No. 1 for "All-Mets" (and he's a reliever !)

the WAR zone with Apodaca looks so close that maybe they each have been No. 1 - or still are, depending on the tweak?

Pedro was a career 0 for 6 batter, but Apodaca managed a .172 AVG in 68 PA with 3 doubles and a 31 OPS+

Bob was 4 for 11 in 1975....