3 moves Blue Jays can still make to win Joey Votto his first World Series

Joey Votto is officially a member of the Toronto Blue Jays! After a long offseason of waiting, during which many doubted he would ever play baseball again, Votto and the Blue Jays agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. This move has become one of the most discussed events during Spring Training, and it seems to be equally as exciting for Votto as it is for the Blue Jays fans. 

Joey Votto is one of the greatest Canadian baseball players ever. Born and raised in the greater Toronto area, he grew up supporting the Jays and has always expressed interest in eventually joining the team in the pursuit of winning a World Series.  

“I watched (Joe) Carter hit the walk-off home run. I watched us win against the Braves on the road. Those were the most exciting moments of my childhood,” he told reporters (h/t The Athletic) earlier this week as he spoke after his deal became official.

In 17 MLB seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, Votto slashed .294/.409/.511 while hitting 356 career home runs. In 2022 and 2023, he started to show his age, and his numbers drastically declined; however, there is belief that Votto can return to his 2021 form — in 129 games, he slashed .266/.375/.563 with 36 home runs. 

Joey Votto has all the motivation in the world to give his all to this team and do anything he possibly can to make the big league roster. Although he has accomplished so much in his big league career, winning a championship would be the crowning achievement.

This motivation was surely a driving factor in the Blue Jays' pursuit of bringing Votto home. The Blue Jays have been all in on winning for the past few seasons — they are a very good team, yet there are still certain ways in which they can improve so everyone can be happy and they can achieve their ultimate goal. These ways can both come internally, as well as through trades/free agency.

3. Improve the Bullpen

In 2021, the Blue Jays' bullpen was their team's biggest weakness, ultimately preventing them from achieving better and missing out on the playoffs by one game. They have since improved upon this and have added major pieces such as Erik Swanson, Yimi Garcia, Zach Pop, and Genesis Cabrera via trades and free agency. 

Although their ‘pen now ranks in the upper third of major league baseball, this is still an area in which it wouldn't hurt to add another key player or two. One thing that remains consistent with every team that makes a deep postseason run is that they always have a deep group of pitchers who can pitch late into games. The Blue Jays certainly have the depth in terms of a variety of different capable arms, however they lack some back-end depth. There is Jordan Romano as the number one option, and then there seems to be a bunch of other options rotating around the number two and three spots. 

Luckily for the Jays, there are many ways in which they can find their clear number two: they could get lucky and have someone from within their organization step up (Erik Swanson or Yimi Garcia, for example), they could go after one of the remaining free-agent relievers (Hector Neris or Ryan Braiser), or they could go after a big name player right before the trade deadline in July (similar to what they did in acquiring Jordan Hicks last year).