USA TODAY Sports
CHICAGO – It sounds counterintuitive, but Joey Votto says his goal is not to stand out defensively.
That’s not because he doesn’t want to return to his Gold Glove-level defense of 2011, but because the way to stand out in what has been baseball’s best defense in 2017 is to be anything less than excellent.
“It's one of the good things about playing with really good defenders – if you do not keep up, you stand out,” Votto said. “My objective is to never stand out on the defensive end, just to keep up with my guys and play as well as I possibly can.