Folks in Toronto and really all over the country where the Blue Jays own the rights are finally coming to the conclusion that the team finally has waited too long. The right time to sign their star has come and gone, over and over again.
Now here they are. While chasing the fancy baubles from a distance they have failed to take care of the gem that’s been in their view for several years. I do believe they see him now. The clock was ticking, the cash register was clicking.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has said on multiple occasions that he’d like to remain in Canada. The Blue Jays have done little with this information, knowing full well there was a reckoning coming eventually.
According to Sportsnet.ca‘s Shi Davidi way back in April of 2023: The Blue Jays have discussed a long-term contract extension but the all-star first baseman says the negotiations didn’t find common ground.
Guerero was quoted as saying in that story:
“I would love to be here my entire career”, but talks “haven’t reached the point that there’s something serious about it.”
The talent didn’t sneak up on the Jays. He was crushing ‘A’ ball pitching at eighteen. Double ‘A’ pitching at nineteen after already being named the number three prospect in all of minor league baseball by Baseball America. He was everyone’s number one at twenty.
He made a cameo appearance in the majors that season and since 2019 at the age of twenty he has been in the big leagues to stay.
Other teams signed future stars long term
The lessons were right in front of their faces. The Atlanta Braves signed Ronald Acuna Jr. in 2019 after just 111 big league games in his age twenty season. Eight years and $100 million. It also included two seasons of club options at $17 million each.
The Atlanta Braves locked up Acuna through his age thirty season. His top salary will be that $17 million figure for the last six years of his contract. In all that will be ten years and $134 million.
Oh did I mention that the baseball executive that gave Acuna that contract was Alex Anthopoulis?
That’s the guy the Blue Jays turfed in favour of the current management team of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins.
They had the chance before he exploded. Two modest seasons of a hitter on the rise. Perhaps they didn’t believe, age twenty and twenty-one seasons in the bigs with OPS+ 0f 109 and then 118. Still no long term contract.
There were not so quiet whispers of his weight being a problem. Guerrero finally figured out it might be holding him back and he did something about it, losing fourty-two pounds in the off season before 2021.
“I can do a lot of things I couldn’t do before. One day, I woke up from bed, looked in the mirror and said, ‘That’s it,” Guerrero had said.
Still no long term contract and his bat exploded. He finished second in MVP voting to Shohei Ohtani. He topped the league in runs, homers, on base percentage, slugging, OPS and OPS plus. Still no long term contract but now he was getting expensive.
He was an all star the next two seasons but all those numbers dropped. Of course those were tough numbers to maintain. There was talk that perhaps he wasn’t all that, that the numbers on a contract would no longer match the performance on the field.
Talks for a new deal last off season with two seasons remaining before free agency came and went. Then Junior rebounded to superstar levels and the price just kept going up. Even if they signed him at any time before the Soto signing they would have saved a ton.
Why would he now not want to see what free agency will pay as much for the Jays foot dragging as the eye opening money his buddy Juan Soto just pried out of the Mets? The Jays’ time has come and gone or else they better back up the truck in a hurry.
