Down to the wire: Vlad Guerrero Jr. isn't backing down from ultimatum with Blue Jays

Article content

Is Vlad Guerrero Jr. trolling the Blue Jays and general manager Ross Atkins? Is the team’s superstar first baseman flexing? Again.

An intriguing daily countdown on his Instagram stories over the past number of days certainly suggests that the Blue Jays slugger is making a point directly related to his self-imposed deadline to cut off negotiations with the team.

Guerrero, who is due to walk into free agency following the 2025 season — and there are enough signs which point to exactly that happening — has been steady and forthright in his messaging this off-season. And so it continues as his cutoff for talks to sign a multi-year extension with the team moves to within a 48-hour window.

As the deadline grows frightfully near — and one would expect that whatever negotiations are taking place will get real and desperate — Guerrero appears to be making a point. For the past three days, the 25-year-old has been posting workout pictures from a venue that does not appear to be the Jays player development complex with the numbers 4, 3 and then 2 superimposed on the picture.

The latter digit was posted Saturday morning and it’s surely no coincidence that Monday, the day before full-team workouts begin, will be the final day for talks, as dictated by the player, but not fully acknowledged by the team.

Guerrero’s commentary on his position has been subtle and confined to social media. But he’s arguably been more revealing than Atkins, the man whose task it is to either sign Guerrero now or essentially set the table for a long and frustrating wave goodbye.

In two meetings with the media in Florida this past week — at the team’s training camp opener in Dunedin on Thursday and again at a mandated appearance at spring training media day in Bradenton the following day — Atkins told reporters that the team is still hard at work trying to sign Guerrero.

Whether that’s just posturing to save face with the public, or sincere sentiment from a front office that has willingly helped drive the bidding past $700 million US for Shohei Ohtani in 2023 and Juan Soto the following winter remains to be seen. Those details may never be known, either, but it’s quite apparent that in allowing Guerrero’s contractual situation to get this close to free agency, the team has no choice now but to overpay.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

The stakes may be higher than the front office realizes — or frankly cares. If Guerrero is allowed to walk, the fan base will be outraged. If he goes into this season without a contract, Jays management will be signing up for a season of distraction and dealing with a clubhouse full of players wondering what gives.

But perhaps ownership and the front office are fine with that, fine with sticking with its internal valuations that suggest paying $450 million US over 10 years (or whatever it will take) is too much for a player who has been inconsistent in his young and still-developing career.

Hours after the 2024 season ended, Guerrero professed his love for all things Toronto and Canada and his desire to remain here long term. That has been a consistent chorus from a player who may be the most popular athlete in the city.

Days later, president Mark Shapiro was considerably less enthusiastic in his view of the relationship when he all but dismissed suggestions that Guerrero was a generational player. Negotiating ploy or not, the potential inference is that the Jays are cautious about investing hundreds of millions of Rogers dollars for a decade of Vlad Guerrero Jr.

Atkins can talk all he wants about “a strong desire” to sign Guerrero long-term — his words to reporters in Dunedin this week — but that too may end up being defeatist posturing. A failure to secure Guerrero would be the latest and, arguably by far, the biggest failure from the front office of a 74-win team that is piling up such losses of late.

A caveat: That Atkins sounded unconvincing is not necessarily cause for concern because it does no general manager in any sport any good to share with the public how negotiations are progressing, especially talks so critical to the short- and long-term future of the franchise.

It’s also a reality that usually the most meaningful negotiations are the ones that come down to the wire. That we are well inside the final furlong of that race is easily the dominating story line in the early days of spring training, but it could still end in triumphant resolution early next week.

What is concerning though, is that Atkins served up a meek flex of his own, suggesting that the artificial deadline is Vlad’s and Vlad’s only and that “if” a deal isn’t done by then, the team will continue to be interested in talking.

Unfortunately, the reality could be that Guerrero’s only interest beyond Monday will be to get ready to bang out 40-plus home runs in 2025 as a parting gift to a franchise that once viewed him as a cornerstone for the future.