Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto is looking to improve a different aspect of his game

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Immediately after Joey Votto lost the National League MVP by a single vote, he told the gathered media why.

“Base-running crushed me,” he said.

He was right. fangraphs.com rated him as the worst base-runner in Major League Baseball at -9.6. MVP winner Giancarlo Stanton wasn’t great at -2.4. But that was enough to edge Stanton's WAR (Wins Above Replacement) over Votto’s.

Reds manager Bryan Price pointed out that Votto’s been focused on the base-running this spring.

“He's really getting after it, you look at the detail stuff, if you look at how he's coming out of the box, you look at his secondary leads, his first-to-third,” Price said. “His aggression on the bases, he's setting an example through the way he plays. He's the right guy to be setting the tone for this camp and this team.”

Votto always tries to improve on his weaknesses. He had a bad season defensively in there 2016. His defensive WAR was -2.4. He worked on the defense in the offseason and improved his defensive WAR to 0.2. He went from the 16th best first baseman on fangraphs.com ratings to the third best.

“I thought I played very well last year,” Votto said. “But there are certainly some things to get better at. I look forward to righting those wrongs.”

Votto played seven full innings of Wednesday’s 3-hour, 36-minutes marathon.

“He wanted to play seven full innings,” Price said. “After about four, I said ‘you’ve already played seven.’ He’s got a great outlook. He said this is preparing mentally for the games like this. You’re going to have those games that are going to have either a delay or are just painfully slow. It’s battle of attrition to stay in it. He did a terrific job. He could have begged out, but he didn’t. He didn’t even consider it.”

OUTFIELD ROTATION? There will be a Ballpark Factor in the Reds' four-man outfield rotation. If Billy Hamilton is out of the lineup, that means Scott Schebler will have to play center.

Playing center in Great American Ball Park means covering a lot less ground than in Coors Field in Denver or Petco Park in San Diego.

“It’s an imperfect world,” Price said. “It’s like if have an elite defensive shortstop when you do you give him the day off? That’s not necessarily defined by the field. It’s defined by when the guy needs a day off, sometimes when the best offensive matchup is out there. I can’t commit completely to how the rotation will go based on the fields where we’re playing. However, that will certainly be a consideration.”

The Reds also have Ben Revere, a true center fielder, in camp. But Price is confident in the Schebler.

“Any time Billy Hamilton is your starting center fielder and you’re giving him a day off, it would be hard to find a comparable player to defend the way Billy does,” Price said. “But Scott, I think, has good instincts in center field.”