Dunedin, Fla. – Ultimately, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays had very different ideas about the value of young sluggers. A star with only one known baseball home.
And now Guerrero has hit the free agent market and is only 162 games from learning how much other clubs want him.
Guerrero, the 25-year-old Blue Jays superstar, was unable to reach an agreement on a contract extension by the Monday night deadline set ahead of spring training, Guerrero said on Tuesday morning. He spoke. The discussions were extended to around 10:30 after the 9pm deadline, but in the end the club and Guerrero were not able to meet the conditions.
And by that, Guerrero, who has been a Blue Jay since he was 16, prepares to go to the market next winter, knowing that a 26-year-old like him will be paid like other free agents. is now done. – Ability to change.
Guerrero said the Full Jays stuck to their values and his camp was sticking to his camp. This past winter.
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Guerrero said Soto’s contract had no effect on his way of thinking. But he proudly realized he had a lot in mind.
“We didn’t get an agreement,” Guerrero said through club translator Hector LeBron, “And now they’ll have to compete with 29 other teams.”
Guerrero was the 2021 American League MVP runner-up and a four-time All-star, increasing his value in 2024 after the 30 Homer, .940 campaign. He made his debut as a 20-year-old. In 2019, and when he hit the market at 26, Soto, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper will be joining as cash-in young players at Prime.
“Listen, I’m already a guy. I’m 25 and ready to understand business and what it will happen,” Guerrero, who turns 26 next month, said on Tuesday morning the Blue Jays. I said this before my first full-scood workout. “But the conversation went well, the negotiations were calm. At the end of the day, we couldn’t get an agreement.
“I know my worth. I’m going to stick with it.”
And the recent track record of the Blue Jays has proven rarely ended in Toronto.
They were rejected after the 2023 season in this winter and in an effort to sign the shoes hei ohtani. But this time they were the guys who were signed out of the Dominican Republic, the franchise’s cornerstone, the pending free agent Bouchet and the players that Canadian fans have long been obsessed with.
However, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins has sounded a similar theme of financial responsibility that shows that Guerrero cannot be expanded in the past. In short, Guerrero wants market value money, and the Blue Jays are willing to be irrational compared to their valuation.
Guerrero and Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker can easily become the best position player in the open market next winter.
“You have to be disciplined with how you come up with value and are willing to reach certain thresholds and the fact that we run our business,” Atkins said Tuesday. He spoke on the morning. “The offer we made for Vlad was a record setting and would have made him one of the highest paying players in the game.”
To be clear, Atkins meant the record for the Blue Jays franchise. This is just $150 million, the overpayment of the time, and the overpayment that Premier Free Agents could command in this market.
In a way, Guerrero and the Blue Jays were operating on a variety of trucks. Guerrero believes he can command in the market next winter, and the franchise that handles negotiations are agents they will still negotiate with shy one year.
Club president Mark Shapiro has signed a contract signed by Mookie Betts ($365 million with the Dodgers a year before the 2020 free agency) and Josera Mirez (7 years in April 2022 free agency). cited two years ago ($141 million). .
“When we enter negotiations, each side has a rationale for numbers. In this case we couldn’t match the common numbers that share the risk,” Shapiro says. “Both sides will take some. No decisions were found from either party.
“There’s nothing nearby or not closed. Is it done?”
Shapiro argued that the Blue Jays contained subjective factors such as emotions, fan emotions, and imports of maintaining legacy players. Club president Edward Rogers spoke with Guerrero and was involved in the consultation.
And at ohtani-soto-yoshinobu yamamoto Realm, he insists that the club “keep the pounding and in the end we’ll get one of those guys” and they’ll only have three of those tastes Claiming to be within a group of ~5 teams.
But it also shows an appetite to swim in more irrational waters – the Blue Jays offered the same much-needed package otani of $700 million accepted by the Dodgers – for external players, It’s not a year from a free agency.
That’s no use for Guerrero now. His platform season now moves westward from gyms in the Tampa area to the Jays’ vast complex, which is working towards winter, with the human nature being further fired in 2025.
“It’s a big motivation for now. I’m waking up every day, working harder than I used to, building good numbers, staying healthy and going to the playoffs,” he says. “I love this city.
“I love the fans, but at the end of the day, it’s business. I’ll do whatever I can to stay here. I love here. I want to be here. But it’s business and I too I want to take care of him.”
The Blue Jays also harvested nearly seven seasons from Guerrero, sending him to the minor leagues in April 2019, and unlike elite 2019 rookies such as Fernando Tatis Jr. and Pete Alonso, he was Make sure you didn’t reach the free agency until 2025. It started with the first day of that year.
Alonso hit free agency at the age of 30, and Tatis’ debut was set in which the Padres gave him a 14-year, $340 million contract a few years before free agency.
There is still great hope for the 2025 Blue Jays. Atkins argued that Guerrero would not be traded before the season, and if the Blue Jays insisted, he is likely not moving to trade deadlines. However, the possibility that Toronto will meet both Guerrero’s prerequisites seems far away from the market value contract and the chance to win a World Series ring that escaped his Hall of Fame father, Vladimir Guerrero.
The clock is now ticking towards that opportunity.
“The winning team. That’s what I’m looking for in free agency,” Guerrero said of his free agency goals. “You know, my dad has played for years and has never won a World Series.
“And I always have my personal goal to win the World Series and give my dad the ring. That’s all I’m looking for.”
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