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The road ahead is murky. But when Joey Votto peers through the mist at what lies ahead, he doesn’t see himself as a Dodger, or an Astro, or a Blue Jay. The vision hasn’t changed.

He seems himself as a Cincinnati Red. And in the script he writes, there is still a scene where he’s spraying champagne, and not in someone else’s uniform. It’s in the only uniform he has worn all his career.

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But we’ll let him sketch out that vision in a few moments. First, before we consider Joey Votto’s future, let’s reflect on his journey.

The day Joey Votto arrived in Cincinnati, Ken Griffey Jr. was still the Reds’ No. 3 hitter. Adam Dunn was their left fielder. David Ross was their catcher. Eddie Guardado came out of the Reds bullpen that day.

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It was Sept. 4, 2007. Joey Votto’s 17-season journey began with a pinch-hit strikeout against Gary Majewski. There was no way to process the many amazing things that would lie ahead. But it wasn’t only us who couldn’t process it all. It was Votto himself.

“I didn’t think I was going to be a career Cincinnati Reds player,” Votto told me, in a typically next-level conversation, on the latest Starkville edition of “The Athletic Baseball Show.” “When I was drafted, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m a Cincinnati Red.’ And then, as you kind of get older, you’re like, ‘I’m a Cincinnati Red. This is kind of fun. I like this.’

“But you don’t know … ” Votto reflected — except that turned out to be a sentence he didn’t finish, maybe because it was one he couldn’t finish.

It was impossible to know back then, of course, what would await over the horizon — for his team or for himself. But we know now, don’t we? It’s 17 seasons later, over 2,000 games and 2,100 hits later. It’s an MVP trophy, six All-Star games and four trips to the postseason later. So it’s been quite a ride.

But now, here in August 2023, Joey Votto finds himself in a unique place in life and baseball. He’s four weeks from turning 40. And for the first time in all those years as a Red, he’s in the final weeks of the guaranteed portion of a contract that has assured him, since the day he signed it — way back in April of 2012 — that he would be a Cincinnati Red for as long as he wanted to be.

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So now, as he approaches that moment where that choice will be theirs, not his, I asked him about his future, with this two-part question:

• Has the uncertainty caused him to approach the journey differently, as he has gone through this season?

• And where does he think he will be in life a year from now?

Would it surprise you if I told you it took him 10 minutes to answer those questions (though I did interject with a couple of follow-ups along the way)? I’m not sure why it would. Not if you’re familiar with Joey Votto’s work.

But his answer also took us on a journey of its own, deep into the heart and mind of one of the most thoughtful players who has ever played baseball. He eloquently expressed, as only he can, that he values what it means to say he’d been a Red his entire career.

He made it clear, as well, that when he looks in the mirror, he still sees a productive player but one who has to prove that to the world — and to himself — over the next month and a half.

I’ve been asking questions like this to players like him for a long time. I’ve never heard anyone express his thoughts, his hopes and his emotions quite like Votto did.

You should really listen to the entire conversation. It’s fantastic. But here are his heartfelt reflections on what lies ahead, because you may never hear those reflections expressed like this again — by any player. (These quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.)

On the doubts

He’s coming off serious shoulder surgery. He spent a long time, early in the show, articulating how difficult that has been. But here’s the other part. It isn’t just a challenge for the body. It’s a challenge for the mind — and that mind doesn’t get to work through that challenge in a vacuum.

“You know, when you’re in the midst of this, this comeback from the injury, there’s so many moments where the doubt creeps in,” Votto said, “Where it’s like: ‘You’re done.’ … And then things get better. Swing gets better. Body starts feeling better. Shoulder — arm in general, body in general — starts feeling better. And then it’s like a: ‘No, no, no. I want more,’ sort of thing.

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“Coming back from this rehab has been sort of an up-and-down experience, you know? And if you (read) anything on social (media), or any articles, or any commentary in person, or any message from a fan, or even on the field, (from) your peers, it’s: ‘Old guy. Washed up. Retire.’ Or: ‘Wow. You’re old. Amazing. I can’t believe it. You’re almost 40. This is incredible. You can do the Tom Brady thing.’…

“So it’s like, the message being sent to me is: Whoever is speaking to me understands the context of where I’m at, and are providing their own projection onto it.”

Connecting the dots: Past, present, future

Predicting the future is a horrible gig. Who’s good at it anyway? FanGraphs? Vegas? The Psychic Hotline?

So why would Joey Votto start predicting his future? Oh, he’s thought about it, because how could he not have thought about it? But let’s begin here: His mind is still dealing with today, not tomorrow.

“To answer the question about where I see myself in a year, I have tried really hard to stay present,” he said. “I’ve tried really hard to not get too far ahead of myself because today, today’s at-bats and the next day’s at-bats, each day’s individual at-bats, defense, base running — they’re all basically a tryout. Not to other teams. Not to my team. But they’re actually a message I’m sending to myself on a daily basis.

“I want to be an effective major-league player. I want to be a really good major-league player — and one of those players that you just pencil in the lineup and forget about … what I have been when I entered the league, and that’s most likely what I’m going to be when I leave the league.

“And so every single day is, you’re going to send YOURSELF the message that you can do it. And then whatever happens, happens. I know when I play well, I’m a major-league player. I’m not going to be soft about this. I’m a major-league player. There’s nothing to say about that. When I’m not a major-league player, I’ll leave.”

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‘There’s only so much control I have’

When most of us turn 40, we get to decide how long we do what we love to do. But most of us don’t play baseball for a living. So if you’re Joey Votto, that time is rapidly approaching when someone else will shape that decision.

Will the people who run the Reds want him to stick around, to wear their uniform, to collect their paychecks, to infuse their clubhouse with leadership and wisdom? Excellent question. You know who can’t answer it? Votto himself.

“If you’re asking about where I think I’ll be next year, I have limited control on that, right?” Votto said. “They have an option. They have a team option for next year. And we’ll see what they have to say about it. Most importantly, we’ll see how they feel about me.

“You know, it’s time, at some point, to move on. Maybe they feel like they want to move on. … Maybe they feel like they don’t want to pay me, you know? Maybe they feel like there’s budgetary stuff. I have no idea whatsoever. All I can really do is run through this finish line and play. And to be honest with you, that’s really all … where my head’s at.

“I’ve been a Cincinnati Red my entire career. I have nothing but pride wearing this uniform. I would love to finish my career in a Reds uniform. But there’s only so much control I have over that. I don’t want to speak on contracts. But that’s up to them.”

It’s not a career. It’s a relationship

Seventeen years. It’s a long, long time. And 17 years in baseball — all with the same team? You don’t measure that just in all the baseball games you’ve played, Votto said.

“It’s a relationship,” he said. “You know, there were times in the heart of my contract where, you know, I was frustrated. And there were times in the heart of the contract where they were frustrated. I’m sure there were probably countless times where they wanted to trade me. No one would ever tell me that. But it’s not going to hurt my feelings if you wanted to get rid of me.

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“There were probably times — whether it’s how much they were paying me, or maybe they didn’t like my personality, or maybe they didn’t like how I was playing, I had a knee injury in the heart of it — whatever perception they had, I’m sure, during the relationship, because there were times where I was frustrated too.

“But that is a long-term relationship. And that’s an impossible thing to avoid over the course of a long contract and a long experience. And we’ve made it this far.”

The special magic of a one-team player

Two thousand games — all for one team. Only five other active players have even played 1,000, all for the same team.

The only players to get to 2,000 whose careers began in the last 30 years? You’ve heard of them: Derek Jeter and Chipper Jones. The only Reds to do it in the modern era? You know them, too: Johnny Bench, Barry Larkin, Dave Concepción.

There’s magic in that. There’s meaning in that. But for Joey Votto, chasing that meaning could easily lead him to a difficult crossroads. So I asked him about what he might do if he finds himself in that strange place.

What if he has a choice, this winter or somewhere down the road? On one hand, he could retire as a one-team player, a Red for life. But how would he weigh that if he had the option to go to some other team, maybe a great team, to write a final chapter there? How hard a decision would that be?

“The jackpot, to me, is winning a championship as a Red,” he replied. “That’s the jackpot to me. It’s an odd feeling. I’m a bit of an, I don’t want to say old-school type, but I admired the (Larry) Birds, the Magics (Johnsons). … You know, my favorite players in baseball — Ted Williams, Cal Ripken, Derek Jeter, the guys that stayed with one team … Roberto Clemente. I have a real admiration for (those guys).

“You know, probably if Frank Robinson had stayed with the Reds, he would have been my favorite player of all time. I met him, fortunately, at an All-Star Game. And I didn’t want to say it to him. … But I love Frank Robinson. (And) it bums me out that they flipped him to the Orioles. If I’m not mistaken, he was wearing an Orioles cap as a Hall of Famer. Is he not? … Maybe I’m projecting, but (maybe that comes from) a little bit of, like, ‘You guys didn’t want me? I’m going to win a Triple Crown over here, and a Most Valuable Player.’”

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Votto admits he has no idea if that’s true. He doesn’t know enough about Robinson and his story. But he has obviously thought about it, thought about how he would feel if he were the one moving on because the Reds didn’t want him anymore.

So think about it as you read the words to come. Does Joey Votto sound like a man who wants anyone’s memories of him — or his own — to be of him playing in any other uniform?

“My jackpot is winning a championship with the Reds,” he said again. “So the idea of, like, glomming on with another organization to win a ring (isn’t that appealing).

“First of all, championships aren’t guaranteed, of course. You know, we were the first-place team that got beat by the Giants team that won the World Series in 2012. So I’ve seen the wild card of wild-card teams have the coolest moment in our sport. So that doesn’t appeal to me, if I speak it out loud.

“Going to another team to chase a ring? It only means so much to me. So it’s like, the jackpot for me is winning with the Reds.”

I’ll be thinking about those words every day as I watch him finish out this fascinating season in Cincinnati. I’ll be thinking about them all winter. Here’s my question: After reading them, won’t you?

But those weren’t the only words that poured out of him on Starkville. That’s just one powerful topic from a typically riveting talk with the most interesting man in baseball.

So for more from Votto — on having a better home run percentage this year than Shohei Ohtani (at least at the time we recorded this, on Friday), on why he wants to be Ichiro, on how he has come to love the new rule changes, on those robot umps he dealt with in his Triple-A rehab option and lots more — check out the new Starkville episode of “The Athletic Baseball Show.”

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(Top photo: Jeff Dean / Getty Images)

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