A saga that has produced many twists and turns of promise and turns of pessimism in the past year has finally culminated in a titanic pact between a local superstar and A franchise that simply could not afford to lose it:: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And the Toronto blue jays have agreed with an extension of $ 500 million over 14 yearsWhile waiting for a physique. After exhaustive speculation to find out if the Toronto chapter of his career would end soon, Guerrero will be the undisputed face of the franchise in the predictable future and perhaps one day will be considered the greatest to wear a Blue Jays uniform.
The fact that the famous knock has found his house forever in Toronto is both a fully reasonable result and which seemed to be in danger while the negotiations were dragging. In the midst of a deeply disappointing campaign last summer, the Blue Jays greatly rejected any external interest in Guerrero as a sales candidate, apparently preparing the field for more serious popular discussions during the offseason. But over the winter months and the activity of a hot stove in Toronto was centered on other activities – some successful, others not – time seemed to run out. Guerrero himself Attach the first day of training in the spring in a way a deadline For popularization discussions, put pressure on Toronto to speed up the process or risk starting the season with the intention of playing the rest of your contract and reaching the free agency.
Advertisement
Obviously, behind-the-scenes talks have progressed far beyond the dead date of Guerrero, another indication of the interest of the two parties to mark an agreement. Towards the end of spring training, rather than going beyond the problem and avoiding making promises in the middle of a negotiation with high issues, the president and chief executive of Blue Jays Mark Shapiro declared his confidence that an agreement would be concludedA daring demonstration of transparency and confidence that his organization would find common ground with Guerrero.
In the end, Shapiro was right. Everything he cost was the second contract in greater contract by current value in the history of the MLB, dragging only the agreement of $ 765 million over 15 years Juan Soto Signed with the dishes in December. Like Soto's agreement, Guerrero does not contain any postponementsthus retaining its price of sticker at the surface level and exceeding the $ 700 million contract Shohei Ohtani Signed with Dodgers (current value of $ 460.8 million after postponement). The Guerrero agreement would also contain any opt-out, guaranteeing the link between the two parties and cement the objectives of the duration of the contract: so that Guerrero occurs as one of the best strikers on the planet and for the Blue Jays to invest in the alignment which surrounds it in the pursuit of the first World Series title of the franchise since 1993.
It seems unlikely that Guerrero even snriced $ 500 million if the two parties had continued an extension as recently as October. But Soto's agreement with the dishes changed the scope of what a player of Guerrero's position considered a realistic target, especially before reaching the free market. Compared to Soto, the history of Guerrero – which have presented MVP caliber tops but also frustrating and mediocre stockings – is much less virgin, and it does not even boast a fraction of the epic epic curriculum of excellence in eliminatory series. That said, it is quite reasonable that Guerrero considered Soto as a peer and a player whose value is at least proximal.
Advertisement
Soto has only five months more than Guerrero, and the two gave their first professional contract in the same International signature class In 2015. Guerrero received a bonus of $ 3.9 million from Blue Jays, and Soto collected $ 1.5 million from the national championships – heavy investments compared to the market they occupied at the time. They both ran to the big leagues, proving their generational offensive prowess at different stages along the way. Soto then rebounded among three franchises before reaching the free agency and signing long -term with the New York dishes. Guerrero remained rooted with the only organization he has ever known and has now chosen to keep this for the rest of his career.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. could be the greatest player in the history of Jays Blue Jays.
(Grant Thomas / Yahoo Sports)
The status of contract is no longer in question, the emphasis is now recent on Guerrero, the baseball player and what he can bring to Blue Jays in the next decade. It is easy to look at a contract which extends incomprehensibly far into the future and to worry about the productive of the player towards the end, but that is the reality for all the agreements of this nature; No team signs a long -term contract with warm enthusiasm for the way the player will examine 38 years. As with Soto, the reason why a team registers to pay a player like Guerrero during his probable decline in the late 1930s.
Advertisement
In simple terms, Guerrero's superpower in the hitting box is his ability to combine the thunderous raw power with rare bat skills. Since 2019, Only two players displayed a percentage of slugging higher than .498 of Guerrero while withdrawing from a clip less than 15.6% of Guerrero: José Ramírez And Mookie Betts. Guerrero does not offer the same versatile game as Ramírez and Betts, but the fact that he brings an equally powerful combination of power and contact capacity explains how good he is. Without the usual traps of guidelines, which tend to send even the best high power sluggers in crises, the Guerrero production floor has always been exceptionally high, with a degree of reliability amplified by its enormous sustainability. Guerrero did not spend a day on the list of wounded as a large fever.
On the top of the range, the legendary arc of Miguel Cabrera serves as a solid standard to aim for Guerrero. After having exploded on the stage as a phenomenon with the marlins and establishing itself as one of the most prolific strikers in baseball, Cabrera spent most of his career in Detroit producing breathtaking triple lines for a overwhelming collection of rewards and rewards, ensuring that he was not enriched with cooperstown carrying a ceiling with the old English. As well balanced as Cabrera was with the Marlins, but its two best seasons – 2021 and 2024 – are reminders of its rare potential to compete for MVP prices only on the bottom of its bat, just as Cabrera did during its peak years.
Advertisement
During two eight -year extensions, Cabrera won around $ 400 million in 16 years with the Tigers, offering an intriguing parallel with the warrero of $ 500 million over $ 15 years of $ 500 million to serve as a franchise anchor at the first basis of a generation later. If Guerrero is a path similar to Cabrera and to reach an ever -increasing level of production as 30 – its underlying elite measures suggest that it has all the capacities to do so – Blue Jays would surely be delighted, even if the back of the Guerrero contract reflects the sharp drop in Cabrera by reaching the mid -1930s.
These are, of course, high long -term aspirations at the individual level.
For the moment, the short term also has an immense importance, while Guerrero and the Blue Jays seek to go up in the mixture in the Al East fiercely competitive. There is much more work to do for the team and the player in the months and years to come, but Toronto and his fans can be comforting knowing that the history of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jay, will not finish anytime soon.
In fact, it could simply start.
