Votto recreates ‘Sad Keanu Reeves’ meme to show how much he misses baseball

Longtime Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto is really missing the fact that he’s not at spring training.

The former MVP and current MLB free agent saw his 17-year career with the Reds come to an end last fall after the team declined to pick up the Us$20-million option on his contract for 2024, the final season of his 10-year, $225-million contract with the squad. The move marked the first time in his life as a baseball player that he is without a team.

As spring training nears the midway point, the 40-yearold Toronto native remains unsigned. But at least he’s keeping his sense of humour.

This week, the first-baseman shared a lonely-looking picture of himself plunked down on a park bench with a sandwich, coffee and a baseball bat.

“Missing ball,” the veteran slugger captioned his post.

The picture is a nod to a photo of a dour-looking Keanu Reeves that went viral in 2010 in which a paparazzo snapped “The Matrix” star seated on a park bench munching on a sandwich, looking lonely.

In a 2021 interview with “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, Reeves set the record straight on the picture assuring fans he wasn’t miserable.

“I’m just eating a sandwich, man!” he told Colbert. “I was thinking. I had some stuff going on. I was hungry.”

After getting a glimpse of “Sad Joey,” baseball fans flooded his post begging MLB execs to sign the ballplayer to a deal.

“We just need one GM to have a heart,” Talkin’ Baseball wrote on X, while another follower joked they were “starting the process for my own MLB franchise so I can sign Joey Votto.”

Fans of Votto’s hometown Blue Jays urged the team to “rescue this man” as former Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista floated the possibility that the six-time All-star could still end his career at Rogers Centre.