Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is eligible at no cost company after the 2025 season, and his future is undoubtedly the largest looming query hanging over the Blue Jays as they put together for what could be their last 12 months of management over the All-Star first baseman. GM Ross Atkins stated at season’s finish that the Jays can be seeking to begin extension talks this winter, and Guerrero himself confirmed these negotiations have been happening in a latest interview with Abriendo Sports activities (hat tip to Z101’s Hector Gomez and Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith).
Guerrero reiterated that he has curiosity in staying in Toronto, and is “able to go” in signing an extension if the Jays meet his asking value. Nevertheless, “what they provided me will not be even near what I’m in search of,” Guerrero stated, noting that Toronto’s most up-to-date supply was value round $340MM. Notably, this supply got here after Juan Soto signed his 15-year, $765MM take care of the Mets, and utterly reset the marketplace for celebrity gamers.
Solely restricted time could also be out there to shut the hole that exists between the 2 sides, as Guerrero stated that he has let the entrance workplace know that he’ll stop negotiations after the primary full day of the Jays’ Spring Coaching camp. It’s a little bit of an uncommon self-imposed deadline date, as most gamers set Opening Day as their unofficial endpoint for reaching an extension. Clearly an extension can occur at any level earlier than a participant enters free company, but gamers typically want to maintain targeted solely on baseball as soon as the season begins, and thus contract talks are often restricted to the offseason.
It isn’t unusual for some offers, in fact, to be introduced a number of days or even weeks into April, if talks are on the proverbial five-yard line by Opening Day and only a few last particulars wanted to be confirmed. Likewise, Guerrero in all probability isn’t going to finish all talks in late February if he and the Jays have labored out most features of a really profitable (and due to this fact fairly advanced) extension. That stated, decreasing the remaining negotiation window to roughly two months is a fairly public means of accelerating the strain on Toronto’s entrance workplace.
That is purely hypothesis on my half, however the earlier “deadline” may be Guerrero’s means of leaving the door open for a commerce. If an extension can’t be labored out earlier than Spring Coaching correctly begins and the Blue Jays really feel Guerrero received’t re-sign subsequent winter, the Jays may pivot and attempt to commerce Guerrero for some longer-term belongings previous to Opening Day. To be clear, if Toronto spends the remainder of its offseason including expertise to take one other run at rivalry in 2025, it will appear way more seemingly that the Jays simply hold Guerrero to maintain their roster as sturdy as potential in what could be one thing of a last run for the Guerrero/Bo Bichette core.
The size of the $340MM supply wasn’t specified, however a ten-year, $340MM pact produces “solely” a mean annual worth of $34MM per season, which ranks tied for the Fifteenth-highest AAV in baseball historical past. 9 years and $340MM is a $37.77MM AAV that ranks because the seventh-highest all-time, topped solely by the newest offers signed by Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Zack Wheeler, and Aaron Choose. An eight-year, $340MM pact equals $42.5MM in AAV, placing Guerrero behind solely Soto, Ohtani, Scherzer, and Verlander.
Guerrero doesn’t flip 26 till March, nonetheless, so an eight-year deal solely runs by way of his age-33 season. Even a ten-year deal brings Guerrero by way of simply his age-35 marketing campaign, and a longer-term deal within the $340MM vary solely lowers the AAV to a fair higher extent. It isn’t essentially clear what Guerrero is in search of when it comes to contract size, however when it comes to pure {dollars}, it’s straightforward to see why he would balk at a suggestion value barely greater than half of what Soto (who can be coming into his age-26 season) obtained from New York.
From the Blue Jays’ perspective, the hole in manufacturing between Soto and Guerrero would justify a spot in earnings, although it isn’t fairly as massive a divide as one may think. Soto’s big 2024 marketing campaign with the Yankees boosted his asking value by way of the ceiling, however wanting simply at his first six MLB seasons, Soto hit .284/.421/.524 with 160 dwelling runs in 3375 plate appearances, with a 154 wRC+ and 28.2 fWAR.
Via his first six MLB seasons, Guerrero has hit .288/.363/.500 in 3540 PA, with the very same complete of 160 homers, and a 137 wRC+ and 17 fWAR. For each gamers, their worth is essentially derived from their bat, as public defensive and baserunning metrics paint Guerrero and Soto as nicely under common in each departments.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal just lately mentioned what it would take to increase Guerrero, and floated the concept of a contract of someplace between $500MM-$600MM. Assuming no deferred cash can be concerned, this is able to make Guerrero the second-highest paid participant in baseball historical past, behind solely Soto. “Extreme as it would sound to the typical fan…consider, the Jays would want to pay a premium for stopping Guerrero from testing the market. And in the event that they lose him, their already disgruntled fan base may revolt,” Rosenthal writes.
The latter level is one other over-arching ingredient of the Guerrero talks, as maybe no executives in baseball are on as a lot of a sizzling seat as Atkins and crew president Mark Shapiro. Whereas the Blue Jays got here out of a rebuild to achieve the playoffs in 2020, 2022, 2023, the membership didn’t win even a single sport throughout these journeys to the postseason, and Toronto’s nosedive to a 74-88 file in 2024 might be an indication that the Jays’ aggressive window may already be closed.
Toronto’s ardent pursuits of each Ohtani final offseason and Soto this winter indicated that possession was ready to go the space in bidding on top-flight expertise, although it stays to be seen if the Jays view Guerrero fairly in the identical tier these different two superstars. It was only a 12 months in the past that Guerrero was coming off an underwhelming 118 wRC+ in 2023, and there have been questions on whether or not Guerrero was even value any type of long-term funding. For comparability’s sake, Soto’s “worst” full season as calculated by wRC+ was his 2019 marketing campaign, when he posted a 143 wRC+ in 659 PA whereas additionally catching hearth within the postseason to assist the Nationals win the World Collection.
Viewing Guerrero in relation to Soto particularly is a comp that Guerrero’s reps on the Prime Company would seemingly welcome, because it retains Guerrero even subconsciously linked to Soto’s elite wage tier. Rafael Devers’ ten-year, $313.5MM extension with the Purple Sox can be continuously talked about as a Guerrero comp, as Devers was additionally coming into his age-26 season. Guerrero has some statistical edge (Devers had a 123 wRC+ in his first six seasons previous to his extension) and thus an argument to earn greater than Devers bought from Boston, however maybe the Blue Jays’ $340MM-ish quantity displays the concept of Guerrero as solely barely higher than Devers.
It may be, in fact, that the Jays are keen to pay nicely above $340MM, however provided that determine as an early gauge on Guerrero’s asking value within the wake of Soto’s contract. Loads of time nonetheless exists for the 2 sides to finally match up on an appropriate extension, and it might be that Guerrero backs off his early-spring deadline if some progress has been made, even when a brand new deal isn’t precisely imminent.
