Former Cincinnati Reds great Joey Votto appeared on "The Jim Day Podcast" to discuss his new job as MLB analyst for NBC and Peacock for the 2026 season.
NBC Sports' D.J. Short wrote Feb. 8 that Votto, Anthony Rizzo and Clayton Kershaw "will serve as pregame analysts for the Wild Card round of the MLB playoffs this fall and will also appear on select Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts during the regular season alongside hosts Bob Costas and Ahmed Fareed."
"To the credit of NBC, they were persistent," Votto said. "And they let me know that they had quite a bit of interest. And it had been months or longer. Maybe about half a year that they showed real interest. And I was apprehensive. I think that after getting done doing something for so long - I would say I was pretty serious with baseball for about 25 years or so - that I didn't know what I wanted to do. I still think that there's moments that I'm trying to figure out the next steps. But I love the sport."
"When I was playing, I didn't like it," Votto continued. "Because I put so much pressure on myself. And I had such high expectations. And I felt a great deal of responsibility to do the very best I could. And after a while, that became kind of like a sour relationship because it was just once I achieved something, it was on to the next thing. Or as you get older, you get injured, you're not meeting former expectations, or you're not able to play to your very best."
"Dissatisfaction sets in," Votto explained. "So my feeling during the course of my career was at no point in time could I just like let go and relax and really enjoy myself. And I had some moments here and there, but generally speaking, it was always like drive toward the next thing. And once I got done, nothing could replicate that. And I don't know if anything ever will. And that's OK."
"But NBC reached out, and let me know that they were quite interested," Votto said. "And the sport is a beautiful sport. And there's parts of the game that I really, really love. And it's not what I think the average casual fan loves. I think I love like some very specific parts of the sport. And I think that's probably what I can offer the average fan. Because my level of both experience and specific fandom is I think close to a 10 in terms of what I genuinely love about the sport."
Day asked Votto what his specific duties for NBC will entail.
"I would say that if I had that information, I probably wouldn't be able to share it, because it's not mine to hand out," Votto said. "But I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do. And that's kind of exciting. I think I'm in a phase where essentially I took the last couple years off of baseball and, in a way that let me know what I really love about it and what I'm not quite as interested in."
"I left home at 18," Votto continued. "When a team snags you at 18 years old and you become connected to it but then you also feel the business side of the game, you bond to very specific things. And for me, I loved the craft of it. And now that I'm transitioning into media, I think I'm realizing that that's where my interest lies."
Bengals and Bearcats radio play-by-play announcer Dan Hoard shared via Twitter/X that he thinks Votto "will be one of the best baseball analysts ever."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Joey Votto not sure yet of his exact duties as NBC baseball analyst