Cincinnati Reds icons criticize team's performance and ownership

The Cincinnati Reds haven't won a playoff series in 31 years. They've made the playoffs just five times over that span and have had 21 losing seasons. This year's Reds team is currently 72-84 and destined to finish last in the NL Central as the regular season creeps to its end.

Long-suffering Reds fans have had enough, and so has Barry Larkin, a Hall of Fame shortstop who spent his entire MLB career in Cincinnati and was part of the team's last World Series team. Now a team broadcaster, Larkin offered a blunt assessment on the state of his former team following a recent loss.

"I think these last three weeks of baseball, playing against some of the better teams that are going to be going to the postseason, really illustrates how far we are behind at this big league level, and change has to happen," Larkin said. "This city deserves better than that, and I know every player down there feels that. But something has to give. We have to get better because we are so, so far behind."

Larkin's comments were supported on X by Joey Votto, another franchise icon who recently used his broadcast platform to discuss his former team's current plight.

"Cincinnati is among the smallest cities in all Major League Baseball, but we're also the very first major league team," Votto said. "The city has charm. It has history. We have the Big Red Machine. We have icons. Some of the greatest players in the history of the sport wore our uniform. Cincinnati needs to be a centerpiece place in Major League Baseball."

During that same broadcast, Votto inadvertently revealed one of the reasons why the Reds haven't had more success in recent years. It's an issue that's shared by every small market team that can't compete with some of the larger markets in terms of salary.

"Unfortunately, we can't afford him," Votto said when asked about Cincinnati All-Star shortstop Elly De La Cruz and his future with the team. "He is going to cost roughly the GDP of a small county."

Votto is right. The Reds have a rich history that includes being America's first professional sports team (they were established in 1869) and fielding some of the best players and teams in the history of the sport. Many consider the 1975-76 Reds the greatest team in MLB history, at least since the 1927 Yankees. The Reds' most recent World Series team (in 1990) is also notable as they were only the fourth team in history to go wire-to-wire (the 2005 White Sox and 2024 Dodgers have since gone wire-to-wire).

The Reds' heyday, however, was before the free agency boom. Players seldom changed teams back then, which meant that talented teams remained competitive for extended periods of time. The Reds have had good players in recent years, but they have often traded them before their contracts were up. Cincinnati did sign Votto to a lengthy contract, but because of that, they were unable to build strong teams around him for majority of his career. Votto led the Reds to playoff appearances in 2010, 2012 and 2013, but Cincinnati was unable to keep that nucleus of players together for the long haul.

For Reds fans and fans of other small market teams, there is hope in terms of being on a more equal playing field. Major league baseball has proposed a hard salary cap of $245.3 million and a salary floor of $171.2 million for 2027. Cincinnati's 2026 payroll is currently just over $133 million, which ranks 20th of MLB's 30 teams. Half of MLB's teams have a payroll that is under $171.2 million. Conversely, the Dodgers and Mets' playrolls exceed $340 million. The Dodgers' $378.4 million payroll is over $300 million more than the Guardians, who have the league's smallest payroll.

Cincinnati's status as a small-market team is only part of the issue, though. There's a disconnect between fans and owner/CEO Phil Castellini that is a byproduct of fans feeling that the Castellini family hasn't done enough to move the team forward since they purchased the franchise in 2006. The gap between the fans and ownership grew wider on Opening Day, 2022, when Castellini essentially threatened to move the team amid fan criticism.

"Well, where you gonna go?" he said. "Let's start there. I mean, sell the team to who? I mean, that's the other thing, I mean, you wanna have this debate? If you wanna look at what would you have this team do to have it be more profitable, make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exists, it would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else. And, so, be careful what you ask for. I think we're doing the best we can do with the resources that we have."

Like most perennially bad baseball teams, the Reds' ongoing struggles are likely a combination of shaky ownership and the lack of a salary cap in MLB. But regardless of why, Larkin, Votto, and scores of Reds fans are tired of watching a once-proud franchise continue to wander in the wilderness.