Joey Votto: Reds' horrific start to season is 'awful and embarrassing'

Joey Votto has officially entered the Roger Murtagh “I’m too old for this” stage of his MLB career.

The Cincinnati Reds slugger let his displeasure be known on Thursday over the team’s disastrous start to the 2022 season. Cincinnati’s loss to the San Diego Padres earlier in the day dropped them to an MLB-worst 3-16.

“This is awful to experience each and every day,” said the former MVP Votto, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. “We’re competitors, professionally. We’re competitors. Our job is to win. To go out and get smacked around every day is anti-everything that we’re about.

“For me, it’s an awful and embarrassing experience,” he added. “You have to keep going. But when you’re in the middle of it, it’s definitely embarrassing.”

The Reds have been every bit as bad as their record suggests. They have now lost 14 of their last 15 games and hold a putrid run differential of minus-49 (which is also the worst in baseball).

The 38-year-old Votto is now in his 16th career season in Cincinnati. While he went through four straight sub-70-win seasons with the team from 2015 to 2018, this sounds like the angriest Votto has been since he got heckled by fans a few years ago.