When spring coaching arrived and the Toronto Blue Jays had not but reached a contract extension with celebrity Vladimir Guerrero Jr., it appeared attainable — if unlikely — that he was going to be enjoying someplace else by the point the 2026 season rolled round. Guerrero Jr. had set a deadline for contract negotiations, he appeared adamant he was not going to barter throughout the season, and the entire scenario appeared grim for the Blue Jays.
However there may be at all times one massive fact in skilled sports activities: Cash talks.
The Blue Jays proved that by not giving up of their quest to maintain their celebrity, and on Sunday evening they reportedly locked in Guerrero Jr. to a whopping 14-year, $500 million contract extension in response to studies from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
That is the third-largest contract in Main League Baseball historical past, coming in behind solely the latest $700 million deal signed by Shohei Ohtani with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the $765 million contract for Juan Soto with the New York Mets.
That is a completely monumental win for the Blue Jays in a whole lot of methods.
For one, it retains an MVP-level participant that they drafted and developed of their group for what needs to be the rest of his profession.
Second, it comes after the Blue Jays had missed out on a number of top-tier free brokers in recent times, together with Ohtani, Soto and most not too long ago and Roki Sasaki.
If they’d misplaced Guerrero Jr. after the opposite close to misses, it could have been a crushing blow for the group and fan base. It’s one factor to lose out on free brokers who by no means performed so that you can the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Mets in an open-bidding scenario. However not having the ability to preserve your individual homegrown star is one thing else totally.
This not less than reveals they will do the latter. That issues. Quite a bit.
The 26-year-old Guerrero Jr. remains to be very a lot within the prime of his profession and will have a number of massive years forward of him. He has been one of many American League’s greatest hitters since arriving within the Main Leagues and has a profession OPS+ of 137 (with 100 being a league-average hitter).
He’s the Blue Jays’ high participant, the largest draw and has completed within the high six of the MVP voting two completely different occasions, together with the 2024 season and a runner-up end throughout the 2021 season. Now they’ve him in place for the foreseeable future and shouldn’t have to fret about any extra contract negotiations or distractions with him, or hear opposing fan bases attempt to recruit him. He’s a Blue Jay. He’s staying a Blue Jay.
