I'm sure the Reds realized at the time of the deal that they weren't going to get good value the last year or 3 of the deal. And Votto is having a bad year by his measure and has been playing hurt. Yet he still has been pretty damn good. As of 2 weeks ago his line was .273/.410/.443 with a OPS of .853. He was obviously hurting as of late, but even now he's still got a .390 OBP and a .800 OPS. 25 million for a 40 year old is almost never going to work out great, but in 9-10 years, the top AAV for players will likely start with a 4. So unless you believe Votto is going to never come back and be the guy he was last year or his entire career, I doubt it's going to cripple the Reds to this degree. Votto is nowhere near the player he was 2 years ago. Once umpires actually start enforcing the strike zone when he's batting, his OB skills will decline too. He's getting the kind of injuries that occur to players as they age. In short, he's an old 30. You think the fact that his BABIP has dropped .372, .361, .349, .404, .360 to .299 this year might have a little something to do with that despite the fact LD% is actually higher than his career numbers? That and the fact that he has been injured? Sometimes...players just have bad years. As for being an "old 30," I'm not really sure how to respond to that, so I won't. I don't think anyone here's qualified to make such a statement. I do of course think the suggestion that his walks are the result of umps "not enforcing the strike zone," is outlandish. Votto is dealing with injuries that players deal with at any point in their career. He's hardly getting old. He's got a quad injury that put him on the DL earlier in the year and the Reds hinted at the fact that he would deal with it for the rest of the season before he came back at the beginning of June. He's a 1st basemen who is the best OB guy in the game. That ages well. He's also been exceptionally unlucky this year. He didn't have microfracture surgery, he's not a SS, CF or C who derives his value from his defense. He's a star player who's struggling. Lets not start writing the obituary and claiming conspiracy theories just yet(umps who have a different strike zone for him). I'd be willing to bet that he'll be back healthy next year and again leading the league or near the league in OBP, hitting .300 and one of the premier hitters in the game. I just think this is a classic overreaction. The guy has been great every year, he gets a quad injury, his BABIP drops and now he's an "old 30," and his salary is going to cripple the Reds for years because of it. Don't you think that's a bit premature? Aside from his already burdensome contract, I don't think there is nearly as much to take away from this nagging injury as you seem to.