Barry Larkin didn’t hide his frustration after another rough stretch for the Reds, and he made sure the message landed hard.
Following a recent loss, the Hall of Fame shortstop and longtime Cincinnati broadcaster said the club’s late-season slide has exposed just how much ground it still has to make up.
"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."
The comments came with the Reds sitting at 72-84 and headed toward a last-place finish in the NL Central. It’s another bleak entry in a long run of disappointment for Cincinnati, which has not won a playoff series in 31 years, has reached the postseason only five times in that span, and has suffered 21 losing seasons.
Larkin’s remarks quickly found an echo from another Reds icon. Joey Votto backed the criticism on X, then used his own broadcast platform to make the case that Cincinnati should matter more in the sport’s landscape.
"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."
Votto also pointed to the financial reality facing the franchise, and he did it with his usual bluntness when discussing Elly De La Cruz.
"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."
The Reds’ history still carries real weight. The franchise was established in 1869, making it America’s first professional sports team, and Cincinnati has produced some of the most famous teams in baseball history. Many still view the 1975-76 Reds as the best team in MLB history since the 1927 Yankees, and the 1990 club remains notable as only the fourth team to go wire-to-wire, a distinction later matched by the 2005 White Sox and 2024 Dodgers.
But that era belonged to a different baseball world. Before free agency changed the sport, teams could hold on to their stars far longer, and Cincinnati’s best groups stayed intact in ways that are much harder to duplicate now.
In recent years, the Reds have often moved good players before their contracts expired. They did sign Votto to a long-term deal, but that also left them unable to build enough around him for most of his career.
Even so, Votto helped guide Cincinnati to playoff appearances in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
There is at least some reason for small-market teams to keep an eye on the future. 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 just over $133 million, which ranks 20th among MLB’s 30 teams. Half of the league’s teams are below the proposed floor, while the Dodgers and Mets are both above $340 million.
The Dodgers’ $378.4 million payroll is more than $300 million higher than the Guardians, who have the league’s smallest payroll.
Still, payroll is only part of the Reds’ problem. The relationship between the fan base and owner/CEO Phil Castellini has been strained for years, with many supporters feeling the Castellini family has not done enough since buying the team in 2006. That tension sharpened on Opening Day in 2022, when Castellini responded to criticism with a remark that only deepened the divide.
"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."
For a franchise with that kind of history, the present-day picture has grown harder for fans and former stars to stomach. Larkin said it plainly.
Votto did too. And after another losing season, the frustration around Cincinnati is impossible to miss.
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