When Vladimir Guerrero Jr. first pursued the game of baseball after his father, growing up in Montreal, Quebec while is dad Vlad Sr. was slugging it out for the Montreal Expos, when Vlad Jr. was signed as an international free agent by the Toronto Blue Jays, his very own home team, and when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. first walked onto the field in a Blue Jays jersey, it was a blessing for the franchise and for the fans who’ve just witnessed the best Jays baseball in decades from 2015-2016, now knowing that a generational prospect just landed in their grasp for the next generation of success. What noone was expecting on the other hand, was complete and utter betrayal, a lack of effort, and total disregard. These statements aren’t directed at Guerrero, rather towards Ross Atkins and the rest of the Blue Jays front office, for failing to provide the fans, the team, and especially Vlad with what they were expecting all year long, a new contract extension. Coming into the final year of Guerrero’s contract this past season, everyone was eager to hear how long the Jays were gonna lock up Vladdy for to make him a guaranteed Blue Jay for life, but as the months rolled along, doubt began to set in on what the contract negotiations were looking like between the club and the first-baseman. It was announced that a deadline of February 17 would be placed in order to get a contract extension done, after that point if a deal had not been reached neither Vlad or the Blue Jays would continue extension talks throughout the season.

During the entire length of the offseason, rumours and talks about negotiations began to ramp up and details started to come out about the number Vlad was looking for in terms of a new deal. The number that was floating around was in the ballpark of $450 million over a term of about 12-15 years, and the only news we the fans were receiving was that the Jays were “not close” to matching that number. Further and further into free agency we would go, and the Jays were out making all the necessary moves to try and bolster their lineup. Hoffman, Scherzer, Gimenez, and Santander to name a few of the guys the Blue Jays handed out fresh new contracts to, to get them to play for the blue and white. Although out of all the signings the team made, none were more valuable than their 25 year old superstar still without an extension.

Eventually, the final night would arrive and fans were waiting in anticipation whether the notification would come from their favourite insider stating that a deal would be made or not. And ultimately as midnight passed, no notifications would be released and the deadline would end with the Jays and Guerrero Jr. unable to come to an agreement. The following morning, Guerrero along with both General Manager Ross Atkins and President of the Blue Jays Mark Shapiro were open to the media and received many questions regarding the negotiations. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was asked about what happened in the room and how he thought everything went.

Vladdy was asked if the Blue Jays were close in negotiations.

“No.” pic.twitter.com/DkoNieI7WE

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 18, 2025

Vladdy simply said they had their number and he had his, and their number wasn’t close to what he was looking for. He also said that he wants to be a Jay for life, and the motivation to stay in Toronto is there, but the team would now have to compete with 29 other teams in free agency to make that happen.

Mark Shapiro was asked why he thought a deal wasn’t done and he said.

“We couldn’t align on a common number… a lot of progress was made.”

Mark Shapiro shares why he thinks the Blue Jays and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. couldn’t agree on an extension. pic.twitter.com/1mxf8fX1rH

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 18, 2025

Shapiro said that both sides had rationale for their number and they couldn’t come together to reach a common number. But the question is what rationale do the Jays have for not wanting to come closer to Guerrero’s number? It’s obvious what Vlad’s rationale for his number is, he’s the best first-baseman in baseball at only 25 years old and coming off a season where he batted over .300 with 30 homers. There is no reason to wonder why Guerrero would ask for a high dollar amount for his contract considering that it’ll stretch out for the next decade plus, but for the Jays to say there would be too much risk in investing all of that money in a young home grown superstar that wants to be there for his whole career is just ridiculous.

The implications are very serious for the Jays, now having to go into this season with the fact that their superstar is now an expiring free agent. Every other team is going to be gunning for Guerrero next year, and the Jays will be in against steep competition if they have any desire left to re-sign Vlad. This entire past off-season the Jays were looked at as the team who constantly missed out on top free agents and who’s to say that won’t happen again next year with free agents including Guerrero. It’s very possible another team snags Guerrero next free agency, with an offer similar to what the star infielder is currently asking for now, while the Jays continue to pile up huge amounts of money for noone to want to take it.

This setback will ultimately cost the Jays years of progression, since the entire plan of this rebuilding/retooling phase was to build a roster to play with Guerrero in order to be a competitive team and eventually get back into world series contention. This is not what the fans deserved, they should have heard that the team was willing to meet Guerrero’s number and lock him up for life, but now all eyes look towards the management who’ve been on their heels for years about the security of their jobs and many instances of fans calling for the firing of Atkins and Shapiro, not being able to sign Valddy could very well be the final straw.

In the end, what’s done is done and all fans can do now is enjoy the ride this season and hope that next winter management will figure out a way to convince their star that Toronto will always be home and there’s no better place to spend his career than in his own house.