Reds not trading Votto?

There has been a lot of talk (maybe too much talk), that the Cincinnati Reds would or should listen to offers for the 2010 NL MVP, Joey Votto. Votto is signed through 2013 and would be a free agent afterwards.

But, GM Walt Jocketty said emphatically that they have not been talking about moving their first baseman.

“We haven’t talked about it. I wish that people would stop writing it,” Jocketty said Monday. “Why would we trade one of the best players in the game? We’re trying to win.”

Votto makes $9.5 million next year and $17 million in 2013, so the only way they’d move him is if they felt they just didn’t have the cash to keep him. Still, you’d trade him after 2012, not now.