GOODYEAR, Arizona – The sound of a solitary bat making purposeful contact echoes from within the warehouse-sized building that houses the Cincinnati Reds' batting cages. Joey Votto would say later that he was in there 20 minutes, 30 tops. It seemed longer.

It was longer. I sat on a picnic bench in the shade, waiting for Votto to finish. Teammates came and went. Eugenio Suárez, Scooter Gennett, Scott Schebler, each stayed 15 or 20 minutes, honing a groove, tweaking an imperfection. Votto was there before they arrived and remained after they left, working out last year’s shortcomings one swing at a time.

He is a technician and a perfectionist, so his 2018 season was hard to take. On Wednesday, “surprising" was the one word he chose to describe it. “I’ve never looked at a season and been more shocked and confused."

Votto batted a satisfactory and very mortal .284. He led the league in on-base percentage for the seventh time, but his power numbers were shockingly low. His OPS dropped from 1.032 in 2017 to 8.370. Something was missing and most of it owed to advancing age. By Votto’s own admission, he didn’t prepare well enough to overcome his 35th birthday, last September.

“I was a little burnt out from the season before" when for the second time in his career he played all 162 games. “I don’t think I prepared as well as I could or should have. You pay for it quickly."

Votto, being Votto, had a wonderful phrase to describe it. “I wasn’t as fast as the game," he said.

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There is no being a little off in baseball. A little off gets you in big trouble. But Votto was a little off. A little slow with the timing, a little slow in the field.

“Last year was an example of my physical side being a little less forgiving than in the past," he said. “The game is always getting better, faster, sharper. (Pitchers) are getting to know you better. If you aren’t getting ahead of it, you’re getting behind."

It was plain to him last March that he could be in trouble.

“I was really aware of how behind I was. I thought I had it, and I didn’t. Whatever it was physically, I felt like I was behind the speed of baseball," Votto said.

We mortals feel it far later in life. An inexplicable twinge in the knee at age 50, an inability to sleep soundly at 60. Things hurt for no reason. The golf swing shortens, same as the breath on a hike. We wear cheaters to read and we say “huh?" a lot.

For elite athletes, it all gets compressed. The knee happens at 30. The ability to train hard has to be rationed. After I said to Votto I thought he’d been hitting for two hours, he said, “If I was out there for two hours I’d be (feeling) it for two days. Every rep counts, every swing counts, you try not to waste anything."

Votto is wise enough to heed the creeping limitations of age, and fastidious enough to at least keep them in slow motion.

“You have to be quite a bit more disciplined with your off-field life," he explained. “Sleep, rest, eating well, managing stress. At this age, it’s dealing with the touchiness. My game now requires quite a few more reps to be within that acceptable bandwidth of what I think is a repeatable performance."

Translation?

“Reps, man. Quality reps. Concentration. Everywhere. Everything is about discipline and precision. I’m aware of it. Lately I’ve been watching what time (of day) I eat. Not late. Managing sugar. The body is less forgiving."

The pattern with Votto is easy to spot. In 2011, the year after his MVP season, Votto played in 161 games. In '12, he managed 111. In 2013, Votto played every game; in '14, he missed 100.

He was out there every day in '17. Last year, he played 145 games and seemingly grinded through every one of them. “I was more able to compensate for (fatigue) with my youth," he said. Now, he’s reaching for the metaphorical cheaters.

“Tom Brady said, ‘As long as I’m playing well, I’m happy playing.’ I agree," Votto said. “I like playing well. I don’t enjoy the game as much as I like playing it well. As long as I’m playing at an acceptable level, I’m OK with that. If I go too far below that, I don’t think I could just throw the uni on and go out there. That’s not my personality."

Is this a crossroads year? Possibly. Votto has been remarkably durable, but at some point, the body starts calling the shots. All Votto can do is tell his body to shut up, by rationing the purposeful work. His word for last year was “surprising." This year?

“Prepared," Votto said.