The Toronto Blue Jays might have come up on the short end of the Juan Soto sweepstakes. But their pursuit of the star outfielder, who ultimately signed a record 16-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, produced one big winner: Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Guerrero, who turns 26 in March, is a year away from hitting the free agent market at the same age as Soto — and with a similar resumé of success.
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The son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero has made a name for himself in six major league seasons, making four American League All-Star teams, winning two Silver Slugger Awards, and even capturing a Gold Glove Award after moving to first base.
A career .288/.363/.500 hitter, Guerrero is coming off a season in which he hit 30 home runs and drove in 103 while cutting his strikeout rate and appearing in 159 games for Toronto.
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The Blue Jays enter the offseason highly motivated to not let Guerrero reach free agency, when he's able to solicit bids from all 30 teams — a tactic players commonly use to drive up their earning potential. By signing him to a long-term contract extension, the Jays would have an obvious franchise cornerstone to build around for years to come.
Guerrero, for his part, is motivated to not let his free agent walk year go to waste. He can potentially use it as an audition for a larger contract next winter, and chase Soto's $765 million contract.
Against this backdrop, the Jays have opened talks with Guerrero about a long-term extension. So far, according to Guerrero, they aren't going well.
"What they offered me is not even close to what I'm looking for," he said in an interview with Abriendo Sports, a radio outlet based in the Dominican Republic, and translated by Dominican journalist Hector Gomez on Twitter/X.
The exact numbers the two sides have exchanged have yet to be reported. Guerrero was probably wise to wait for Soto to set the market for 26-year-old free agent sluggers and aim high a year out from free agency.
But the Blue Jays have aimed high before. They were not only among the finalists for Soto, they were among the finalists for Shohei Ohtani a year ago, before two-way star ultimately signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers — a record at the time.
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Although Guerrero likely isn't going anywhere for a year — at least — the stakes of the negotations are high. Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com recently explained why re-signing him long-term is the fulcrum on which the rest of the Blue Jays' plans rest.
"It's all about Vladimir Guerrero Jr.," Gonzalez told Buster Olney on the Baseball Tonight podcast. "That's it. The franchise is dictated all by one guy, and it's Vlad Jr. I've heard they're in talks with Vladdy, trying to get something done. How close they are ... I'm not so sure. Nothing is close. I think this is the offseason they've got to determine whether or not they're going to build around Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And if they're not going to build around Vladimir Guerrero Jr., they've got to trade Vladimir Guerrero Jr. It's that simple."
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