I consider Votto's contract a good one for the Reds.
It worked out about as well as we could have hoped.
We all knew the last 3 years or so would be painful when he signed the deal.
Same with BP, he was productive for most of his deal, except for the last year.
Reds got to keep both of them during the Walt era when they were going for it.
If those two guys hadn't been signed, the team would have likely been no better off.
It's not as if the Reds would have invested the money saved by not signing Votto when they were tanking.. That money would have just gone into the owners pockets.
2020.. The argument could be made that Votto hurt the team last year. IMO, it didn't matter, that was a flawed team anyhow. I don't want to debate if the season was a success or not, but I would rather have had Votto to watch all these years than an extra 25 million to add to the 2020 payroll. 25 million more last year probably doesn't win the division title.