Vlad Guerrero Jr. reveals how much he wanted in extension that Blue Jays shot down
His final ask was significantly less than the contract Juan Soto signed with the Mets
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Did Vlad Guerrero Jr. try to negotiate the Blue Jays into being baseball’s next US$600 million man?
Not quite, apparently.
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Vlad Guerrero Jr. reveals how much he wanted in extension that Blue Jays shot down Back to video
Perhaps we’ll never know how close the two sides were in failed negotiations to avoid the franchise’s most coveted player walking to free agency next fall. But Guerrero has dropped his own volley by revealing details of the failed negotiations and what he was looking for from the Rogers Communications vault.
In an interview this week with ESPN, Guerrero said his final ask from Jays management and ownership was significantly less than the 15-year, $765-million contract Juan Soto signed with the Mets.
How much lower?
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Guerrero told ESPN’s Enrique Rojas and Ernesto Jerez that he was seeking roughly the same term as Soto (which would have made him a Jay effectively for life) but a contract in a somewhat lower dollar stratosphere.
“It’s much less than Soto,” Guerrero told ESPN. “We’re talking about many fewer millions than Soto, more than a hundred million less.
“It was the same number of years (as Soto) but didn’t reach ($600 million). The last number we gave them as a counteroffer didn’t reach 600.”
For their part, the Jays have not indicated how high they were willing to go for Guerrero in advance of the 25-year-old’s self-imposed deadline of the opening of spring training. General manager Ross Atkins said only that the club’s offer would have been the largest in the history of the franchise, a relatively facile comment given that the most the team has ever paid was the six-year, US$150-million deal they issued to George Springer in 2021.
Was Guerrero’s demand outrageous? Perhaps given no other first baseman makes close to what he was demanding, although remember he was dealing from a position of power here.
Or was it just a clear sign from Guerrero and his camp that only a massive contract — which would make him the third-highest paid player in Major League Baseball history — would be enough to keep him from testing the free agent waters?
When it comes to playing the contract game, Guerrero is no rube. He’s watched the high-end free agent contracts soar upwards over the past two off-seasons and rightfully wants to take a shot at his share.
Whether the deal he eventually gets comes close to the Jays final offer — whatever that was — remains to be seen, but all signs point to him being more than willing to find out.
“I know the business,” said Guerrero, who avoided arbitration with the Jays and will make $28.5 million this season. “I lowered the salary demands a bit but I also lowered the number of years. I would like 14,15 even 20 if they game them to me, doing it the right way.”
Guerrero didn’t elaborate on what doing it the right way would look like, but it’s clear that with that term he was sticking with his oft-stated desire to be a Blue Jay for life. In both words and actions, the Montreal-born, Dominican-raised Guerrero has professed his love for Toronto and Canada and since breaking into the big leagues in 2019 has been one of the country’s most popular athletes.
In his interview with ESPN, Guerrero reiterated what he has said to reporters in Dunedin — that once the contract talks with the front office and Rogers CEO Edward Rogers broke down, his focus shifted to what has the strong possibility of being his final season with the Jays.
“There was an exchange (of figures),” Guerrero said, offering more details of the last-ditch efforts to get a deal done. “The meetings lasted until the last day of the deadline but (the two sides) couldn’t reach an agreement on the numbers.
“But as I’ve always said, just because we couldn’t reach an agreement, I’m not going to change the way I work. I have to keep working.”
That doesn’t mean the issue won’t be a distraction, of course. Whenever the Jays visit the big markets this season, Guerrero will be a hot topic. It comes with the territory of being one of the more popular players in the game.
Until we hear details of how high the Jays were willing to go (and what sort of deferrals might have been in a proposed contract), it’s tough to fully evaluate the demise of the negotiations. But by asking for as much as he did, it’s clear that Guerrero is willing to bet on himself.
Coming off the second most prolific year in his career and after another productive off-season working with trainer Nicole Gabriel in Miami, Guerrero will be one of the most-watched players around baseball in 2025.
His immediate task is to help the Blue Jays rebound from a miserable last-place season, an assignment that will be aided by the fact he has free-agent acquisition Anthony Santander hitting behind him in manager John Schneider’s lineup.
If Guerrero, who turns 26 later this month, matches or surpasses his 2024 numbers, he’ll enter the market in hot demand.
And only then will we know if the high stakes bet he’s making on himself will pay off.
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