Votto won the 2010 Hank Aaron Award in the National League. Votto was announced as the 2010 NL MVP, coming within one vote of winning unanimously as Albert Pujols received the other first-place vote. He was only the third Canadian to win the MVP award, after Larry Walker and Justin Morneau. He became the first Reds player to win the National League MVP since Barry Larkin won it in 1995. “Not to be dramatic or anything, but after I was told, I couldn’t help but cry because I know how much at some point this meant to me and would have meant to my (late) father,” Votto remarked after being named MVP. He added, “I did some pretty good things, and most importantly, we won. We went to the playoffs – it’s been a long time since we’d been to the playoffs—and I think those all together were the reason I won.”

Votto enrolled in high school at Richview Collegiate Institute in 1997. In high school, he also played basketball—playing point guard and once scoring 37 points in a game—and hockey. He played for the Etobicoke Rangers baseball program. After high school, Votto signed a National Letter of Intent to play college baseball for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.

After hitting a season-low .213 on May 31, Votto became the first player in MLB since Ichiro Suzuki in 2004 to hit .400 after the All-Star Break. Votto hit .408/.490/.668 in the second half.

Votto rebounded in 2006 with the best season of his minor league career. Playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Class AA Southern League, he improved his batting average to .319, and hit 46 doubles and 22 home runs. He led the Southern League in batting average and total bases and was third in home runs and runs batted in (RBI). He was selected to play in the 2006 All-Star Futures Game on the World Team. He was named to both the Mid-Season and Post-Season Southern League All-Star teams, and was voted a minor league all-star by Baseball America. He culminated his season by winning the Southern League Most Valuable Player Award. During his five seasons in the minors, Votto carried Ted Williams’ The Science of Hitting with him.

Votto started the 2007 season playing for the Louisville Bats of the Class AAA International League. The Reds promoted Votto to the major leagues on September 1, 2007. He made his major league debut on September 4, striking out against Guillermo Mota of the New York Mets. In his second major league at-bat, he hit his first career home run. He went 3-for-5 and scored two runs as the Reds won the game, 7–0. On September 8, he went 1-for-3 with a home run and three runs batted in. His three RBI were the only Reds’ runs as they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 4–3. In his next game, he went 2-for-4. On September 14, he stole his first career base against the Brewers. He ended the season going 2-for-4 with a home run and 5 RBI in the Cincinnati Reds’ final game of the 2007 season. He finished the season batting .321 with four home runs and 17 RBI.

Votto was born to Wendy (née Howell) and Joseph Votto in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in the district of Etobicoke. His mother is a sommelier and restaurant manager. His father was a chef and a baseball fan who died at age 52 in 2008. He is of Italian and English descent. As a child, he adorned his wall with a Ted Williams poster.

Votto opened May with a five-game hitting streak. In a May matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals, he had two homers and four RBI. He finished the month with five home runs and a .378 batting average. However, he was placed on the DL to open June after missing time in May due to personal issues. Prior to his return game during the 2009 season, he indicated he had been suffering from depression and anxiety issues as a result of the sudden death of his father in August 2008 and had sought treatment. He had previously missed time because of dizziness related to an inner ear infection.

Votto finished the season having played in 111 games—the fewest he had played in a season since becoming the Reds’ starting first basemen in 2008. He had a .337 batting average, .474 on-base percentage, and a .567 slugging percentage to go along with 14 home runs, 56 RBI, and 44 doubles. His 94 walks led the NL. (Eighteen of his walks were intentional, which led the majors.)

Votto has been recognized for his defensive play as a first baseman. He led the league in assists (with 136) for first basemen in 2008, a feat he repeated in consecutive seasons in 2011 and 2012. He finished fifth in 2009 with 101 assists and second in 2010 with 128 assists. In 2011, he also led all NL first basemen in putouts (1,341), and he was third in fielding percentage (.996). That year, he won his first Gold Glove Award.

Votto played for Canada in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. In Canada’s first game against the United States, he had four hits in five at-bats, one of which was a home run.

On January 16, 2011, it was announced that the Reds and Votto had agreed to a three-year, $38-million deal.

Votto is known for being a clutch hitter. Through June 9, 2014, he had a career .312 batting average, 163 home runs, and 542 runs batted in. He has been known to show great patience at the plate. He led the NL in bases on balls with 110 in 2011; despite missing 51 games in 2012, he led the NL in that category. His career on-base percentage is .425. He led the NL in that category from 2010 to 2013, 2016 and 2018; he finished second in 2015, one point behind Bryce Harper’s .460 OBP.

On April 2, 2012, Votto signed a 10-year, $225 million contract extension with the Reds, which runs through the 2024 season. The deal includes the two years that remained on his previous contract and pushes the total worth of the contract to 12 years and $251.5 million—the longest active deal in baseball at the time. The deal (including the one-year team option), is the 13th-largest deal in MLB history. At the time, it was the longest guaranteed contract in MLB history. Also, the contract made Votto the highest paid athlete from Canada.

On July 1, Votto was selected by the fans as a National League team starter in the 2012 MLB All-Star Game. At the time of his selection, he was hitting .350 with 14 home runs and 47 RBIs.

Votto played for Team Canada in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

On May 21, 2014, Votto was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left quadriceps. He returned on June 10, but he went back on the DL with the same injury on July 8 and didn’t make it back before the end of the season. In 62 games played, he hit a career-low .255 with a .390 on-base percentage, .409 slugging percentage, 6 home runs, 47 walks, and 23 RBI.

On May 6, 2015, Votto was ejected following a strikeout where he threw his helmet down in frustration. Speculation claimed that prior to his ejection, he had choice words with Gerrit Cole during his at-bat. After getting ejected, Votto appeared to have bumped Chris Conroy. It was only his fifth career ejection and first since 2010. He later received a one-game suspension, which he served when the Reds played the Chicago White Sox.

He finished the year with a stat-line that consisted of a .319 batting average (4th in the NL), .578 slugging percentage (7th), 106 runs scored (6th), 36 homers (6th), and 100 runs batted in (10th). He led the league in OBP at .454, OPS (at 1.032), in walks for the fifth season (134), in walk percentage (at 19%), and in walks per strikeout (at 1.61), while leading the majors in intentional walks (20). His WAR total equalled out to 7.5, his second-highest since his year in 2015 when he had 7.6 WAR. Votto’s homer total was one under his 2010 season as well. Votto became just the first Reds player since Pete Rose in 1975 to start all 162 regular season games in a season and just the fourth player in franchise history to do so. He swung at only 15.8% of pitches outside the strike zone (the lowest percentage in the majors). Among all active players at the end of the season, he was first in career on-base percentage (.428), second in OPS (.969), third in batting average (.313), fourth in walks (996), and fifth in slugging percentage (.541).

In 2016, looking back on his MVP peak, Votto told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “Until Trout came into the league, I thought every year that I would be in the conversation for best player in the game. And he fucked that up for everybody. Babe Ruth and Ted Williams included. He’s ruining it for everyone.”

In 2019, Votto batted .261/.357/.411 with 15 home runs and 47 RBIs. He swung at the lowest percentage of pitches outside the strike zone of all National League batters (21.1%), and had the lowest Soft Contact Percentage of all major league batters, at 10.1%.