The Reds lost a game last night, on a night at the ballpark that had a day-at-work-after-the-drunken-Christmas-Party-last-night feel to it.

The 5-3 loss, Bronson Arroyo's ineffectiveness, Miguel Cairo's ejection, a few missed offensive opportunities, some better-than-decent Reds bullpen work, and the end of a six-game winning streak, all faded deep into the background.

Joey Votto needs surgery.  And the Reds will have to temporarily replace their most irreplaceable player.

If you were required to play three or four weeks without your best player, this is when you'd choose to do it.  Of the Reds next 27 games, only three come against a team with a winning record (Pirates), the starting pitching, last night not withstanding, has been good enough to overcome, a very flawed offense, and this bunch does seem mentally tough enough to not collectively slump their shoulders and mail it in for the next month.

But this is Joey Votto. This is the man many (self included) consider the best hero in baseball.  This is a guy who's the focal point of a team and an offense that lacks consistency and depth.  And this is a team full of guys who could all of a sudden could look a lot less formidable without Joey's bat in the middle of that lineup.

Joey Votto anchors the Reds. 

I talked last week about how the second half onus really needed to be on guys like Phillips and Bruce, and away from players we spend so much time discussing and debating.  BP and Jay have a higher likelihood of having a significant impact this season because they're almost guaranteed to be playing every day, will occupy prominent places in the batting order, and are important factors in maximizing their best hitter's chances of succeeding.

If Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce are great in the second half, the other guys don't have to be nearly as good.

Phillips and Bruce are good players having good seasons, and often enjoying really productive stretches of play, but the Reds need them to be better.  Just as important, those players are being paid to be better.

Can that happen without Joey?

Good question.

And what happens now that we're assured of even more playing time for Scott Rolen?  If the idea was to gradually slide Todd Frazier up the depth chart at third base in an effort to maximize Rolen's effectiveness, how much is that negated if both players will now be in the lineup at the same time? 

And just how do you replace the sheer production?  This is a man who's gotten on base nearly 47% of the times, and who's hit an astounding number of doubles (36), but around whom the Reds still fail to consistently score.  How likely is it that a team that's so bad situationally (fourth-worst productive outs percentage in the NL, and second worst in both baserunning scoring percentage and in scoring runners from third with less than two out), improves without their most feared and consistent hitter in the lineup?

Great questions.

And while the timing and relatively minor nature of the surgery can put our minds at ease - if Joey comes back exactly four weeks from today the Reds will still have more than a quarter of their schedule in front of them - the fact of the matter is the team's margin for error is still small.  They still play in a lot of very close games, and the NL Central race still figures to be very, very close.  The good news is that neither the Cardinals or Pirates appear primed to run away with this division (because, you know, neither are in first place), but if we went into the second half figuring on the race coming down to the final week of the season, how much slimmer is the Reds' margin for error without the one player who often widens it?

Even better question.

But while we look at how Votto's absence will affect the Reds and what moves it may kick into gear (there is not one player on the trade market - that we know of - that's worth panicking over and getting into a bidding war for), it's worth looking back and asking....

Why did Joey Votto not have an MRI until yesterday?

That could be far more important question.

He injured the knee on June 29th, came out of the game early the next day, then sat out two more in LA.  With the team doctor on the trip, why was Joey required - if only for precaution - to have an MRI done while the Reds were on the coast?  How quickly could this timetable have been moved up, how sooner could the Reds have gotten him back, and how much further damage to the knee could Joey have avoided while not playing?

(And it seems rather silly now to have let him play in the All Star Game, doesn't it?)

Joey Votto, because of how good he's been, how important he is, and how serious he is about his craft, deserves some benefit of the doubt when it comes his body and issues like playing time and days off, but he should get little say in minor issues like say, I don't know discussions about injuries that could (and now do) require surgery.

Instead, the injury lingered, made Votto visibly uncomfortable, and the Reds allowed two and a half weeks to pass without doing something to correct the problem.

That's cow-towing to a great player just a little too much.

The Reds have more than a quarter of a billion dollars invested in Joey Votto.  That's more than a quarter of a billion reasons to take every precaution necessary when it comes to that investment.  That among those precautions didn't include a more thorough examination of key body part on their most important commodity is frankly, irresponsible, and tilts a little too much toward a sense of superstar entitlement that I hoped didn't exist here anymore.