Joey Votto's defense of baseball's oldest stat is something the Reds must take to heart

Three true outcomes is the conventional wisdom of today's game. Draw walks and hit the long ball, even if it results in a healthy dose of strikeouts and you'll have an offense that's a force to be reckoned with they say. The Cincinnati Reds have embraced this philosophy in 2026.

The Reds have the highest strikeout rate in the league at 25.5%. Their 9.3% walk rate ranks ninth. With 203 homers, Cincinnati ranks fourth in MLB. So, check, check, and check. What's the end result been? A 26th-ranked 633 runs scored and a 72-82 record that's good for last place in the NL Central.

Former Reds' legend Joey Votto has a solution. Go back to basics and embrace the games oldest stat: batting average. Batting average has lost most of its luster among baseball analysts these days. The old saying, "a walk is as good as a hit," has really taken hold, and newer, more advanced stats like wOBA and wRC+ attempt to provide a more holistic view of the value of each outcome.

Votto found himself in the midst of an online debate with one of the godfathers of modern sabermetrics, Tom Tango aka TangoTiger, who asked the Reds' legend about his opinion on on-base percentage.

"I always thought of batting average as both the hardest and most important thing to do in the sport. There is nothing more enjoyable than going to the game and watching your fave player get a couple hits," Votto responded on Twitter/X.

He then expanded on his opinion, writing, "Batting average is a lower tier stat in [Tango's] world. Go to an actual game, observe the efficiency of walks, K’s, and homers and tell me you wouldn’t want to see a few base hits replacing those three true outcomes."

Efficiency. That seems like an incredibly salient point given Cincinnati's struggles to consistently score runs this season. So when it comes to batting average, where does the club rank? Dead last at .230.

Meanwhile, the three teams with the best records in baseball — the Tampa Bay Rays, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Los Angeles Dodgers — rank first, second, and third, respectively, in batting average. It's hard not to see a connection.

Embracing old-school stats could be the key to unlocking the Reds' offense in 2027

Just as he was shut out of Silver Slugger awards during his career, Votto astonishingly never won a batting title either, despite some wildly impressive years at the dish, highlighted by a career-best .337 average in 2012 and a career .296 average that would have been over .300 had it not been for the two injury-riddled seasons that he finished his career on. Point being, Votto's accomplished a lot, so he's a voice we should listen to.

A big problem with living by the three true outcomes is that you can die by the three true outcomes, too, especially if the homers don't come in critical moments. You can see this in the Reds' absolutely putrid performance with runners in scoring position. All the walks in the world mean nothing if you strike out every time there's a true threat.

To that end, Cincinnati needs to focus on adding contact-oriented hitters to the lineup this offseason. There's enough power in the lineup with Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart, and a couple of others, but what would really unlock the batting order is having a few guys who consistently make contact, especially with runners on base.

Part of what has made Stewart's rookie season so magical is that he's been one of the few players on the team who can actually do that. He hits for a high average with runners in scoring position. As a result, he's second in the majors in RBIs with 110. Surprisingly, that's another stat that the Reds should look at when evaluating potential additions this winter.

Yes, there are limitations with both of these stats. The potential run value of a single is much less than that of a homer; therefore, you'd need to produce many more singles than home runs to yield the same level of performance. At least, that's how it works in a vacuum.

As for RBIs, sure, you can only drive runs in if guys get on base in front of you, but when you prove that you consistently come up big in those RISP situations, you're bound to put up gaudy RBI totals, too.

Or you could be like De La Cruz and do both. The Reds superstar has already set a new career high with 28 homers and is also on pace to put up career-best marks in batting average (.284), walk rate (10.7%), isolated slugging (.233), and on-base percentage (.362).

Of course, it's not possible to have a lineup full of De La Cruz-caliber players, but the point remains. A little more focus on contact and a minimization of the swing-and-miss would go a long way to making the struggling Reds' offense much more potent.

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