Leafs baseball team plans to be "relentless" in pursuit of Joey Votto
Joey Votto never actually ended up playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, but he could end up suiting for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
And no, he’s not looking for a sport change, but the 41-year-old ex-MLB star has officially been approached by the Intercounty Baseball League team playing out of Toronto’s Christie Pits Park that shares the same name as the local NHL team.
As first reported by Robert Konjek in local newspaper The Annex Gleaner, Leafs owner and CEO Keith Stein has officially started putting the word in the Canadian baseball icon’s ear that he’s welcome anytime with the local baseball club.
“I just like taking the bull on the horns with these things,” Stein said in an interview with Daily Hive.
Votto hasn’t offered up an answer either way to Stein, who wanted to ensure that “not a lot has happened” in trying to lure him to the club.
But whether it’s through a connection via current Leafs manager Rob Butler, any of the Leafs players who know Votto personally, or Votto’s own mother who works near the ballpark, Stein said he plans to be “relentless” in trying to get the six-time MLB All-Star and Toronto native involved with the club.
“If Joey Votto wants to be part of this team [or] would consider it, we’d give him [an] ownership [stake] in the team. We’re very entrepreneurial [in] the way we manage this team,” Stein said.
And while adding a former NL MVP and one of the most iconic Canadian players ever would obviously be a major get for the franchise, Stein wanted to clarify that his strategy this offseason wasn’t “Joey Votto or bust.”
“Whether it’s Joey Votto or someone else, I will tell you that we want to add to the sex appeal of our team. And that means not only getting guys who can hit better, and that’s important, we want to do that too, but we need to get players who are going to get us some attention in Toronto,” he added.
“We can offer them top-notch baseball. This is the best baseball product in the city, outside of the [Blue Jays]. So we can offer them a baseball platform for those guys when they’re not ready to hang it up yet.”
Stein purchased the Leafs in November 2023 along with Rob Godfrey, son of former Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey. Jack Dominico had been the previous owner of the franchise since it joined the IBL in 1969, but he passed away in 2022 and his family chose to sell the property.
In the new ownership’s first season in charge of the team, the franchise made a few changes around the ballpark, including a beverage partnership with Left Field Brewery and the creation of the team’s own Leafs Lager, which is available for purchase both at games and in the LCBO. In addition, all tickets to games remain free, as the team’s home diamond is located in an accessible city park in the middle of Toronto.
“We love that it was going to provide an entertainment experience, a diversion for families and Toronto kids, something they could take advantage of every Wednesday night or Sunday afternoon or whenever we have our games without, spending 300 or 500 bucks,” Stein said. “It bothers me that professional sports in Toronto have become just too expensive for most people.”
The 2025 season will kick off in May. And while Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons at Christie Pits have been a staple for the Leafs franchise, Stein prefers the crowds that might be interested in a weekend nighttime experience.
“I want to shift [our home games] as much as possible to Friday and Saturday nights,” Stein added. “Next season, we’re going to really, I think, take this thing to another level.”
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