So how are those talks to extend Vlad Guerrero Jr. going now that the Blue Jays all star first baseman’s self-imposed deadline is a little more than a month away?
Not so well, apparently, which should be a surprise to no one for all sorts of reasons.
That said, The Athletic dropped a Vlad bomb on Thursday afternoon, reporting that the Jays front office hasn’t spoken to Guerrero about a multi-year extension since before Christmas. In the interim, Guerrero has gone public about what he perceived to be a low-ball offer from the team and his own counter with an ultimatum.
Fun stuff for a last-place team trying to reverse course with its fan base, a restless group of veterans in the clubhouse looking for improvements, and free agents on the market looking for reasons to take Rogers Communications cash.
The giant caveat with all you are hearing around the Jays is that Toronto general manager Ross Atkins has been notorious about keeping his off-season business close to the vest, and there’s still time to take make a huge splash with Guerrero and others. But the latest report is a puzzler given that for yet another head-spinning offseason the Jays have been linked to negotiations with so many free agents it’s difficult to keep track.
With that uncertainty has come a wild couple of days of speculation regarding Guerrero, who is due to become a free agent following the 2025 season.
Though the Jays last week avoided going to arbitration with Guerrero when he agreed to a one-year contract worth US$28.5 million, it did little to quiet the noise around the 25-year-old slugger. Quite the opposite, it seems. And as a result, wild speculation continues to be attached to a Jays team that can’t stay out of the spotlight.
Also on Thursday, there were a flurry of reports suggesting that the New York Mets were kicking tires on a possible trade for Guerrero, a prospect that seems a long shot but given the uncertainty of his future, who knows? If the front office decides to bail on Guerrero, it makes sense to trade him. But not right now.
Meanwhile, citing sources “briefed of the conversations” The Athletic report by Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon reported that talks are expected to pick up as Guerrero’s self-set deadline to end extension talks (on Feb. 18 when full team training camp activities begin).
Adding further intrigue is that multiple reports on Thursday suggested the Jays are in serious discussions with free agent Pete Alonso, who has apparently hit a stalemate in his talks with the Mets. Should the Jays land Alonso, they would have a decision to make positionally given that both Alonso and Guerrero have principally played first base throughout their careers.
One could shift to designated hitter and there’s always the possibility that the Jays could move Guerrero back across the diamond to third base where he started his big-league career. Based on Atkins’ comments in a season-ending meeting with the Toronto media, however, that would seem unlikely. Guerrero played 12 games at third base last season, but it never felt like a long-term experiment.
“An openness for sure (but) all together that would be a very, very big ask,” Atkins said when asked about moving Guerrero back to the hot corner. “Just staying open to that and something that can help us. What we want to work with through Vladdy is, is that 20 games or is that 100 games. There’s a big difference there. I don’t want to make that decision without him.”
In the bigger picture, the Alonso situation also has layers. As his negotiations with the Mets have stagnated, could the escalation of rumours be a ploy by his wily agent, Scott Boras? Who knows?
As for the lack of talk on an extension with Guerrero, that too could mean little at this point, given a transaction of such magnitude could go right down to the wire. And as is often the case this time of year, there are conflicting reports on the Guerrero front. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith contradicted the report in The Athletic with a post on X that the” Blue Jays are actively negotiating an extension” with Guerrero.
It’s not as if Atkins hasn’t been busy over the past week or so. Much of the Jays’ off-season attention has been spent attempting to woo 23-year-old Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki. The Jays are reportedly one of three finalists for the services of a young player expected to be ace material, along with two more logical candidates, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
As well, Atkins finished off potentially his biggest piece of business this offseason when the team signed reliever Jeff Hoffman to a three-year, US$33 million deal, likely to serve as the team’s closer.
But the deeper we get into the offseason, the wilder the rumours become. And as it applies to Guerrero, the prevalent opinion around baseball is that Guerrero is in no rush to sign a deal with the Jays and is quite content to take his talents and big bat to free agency in a little more than 10 months.