Jays Miss Critical Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Deadline as Free Agency Looms
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J.P. Hoornstra writes and edits Major League Baseball content. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.
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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. let the Toronto Blue Jays know he did not want to negotiate a long-term contract extension once the offseason ended. When Monday's deadline came and went without a contract offer, that was it. Guerrero was done.
"I have my numbers and they have theirs and they didn't even reach a middle point," the three-time All-Star told reporters Tuesday in Florida.
So it was that Guerrero walked away from negotiations with the Blue Jays, setting the stage for the four-time All-Star to hit the free agent market when the 2025 season concludes.
"I don't want my teammates to go through any distractions about that," Guerrero said. "I'm here today. I'm ready and want to win a lot of games and make it to the playoffs. That's all that's in my head right now."
A career .288/.363/.500 hitter, Guerrero is coming off a season in which he hit 30 home runs and drove in 103 while cutting his strikeout rate and appearing in 159 games for Toronto.
The Jays entered the offseason highly motivated to not let Guerrero reach free agency, when he's able to solicit bids from all 30 teams — a tactic players commonly use to drive up their earning potential. By signing him to a long-term contract extension, the Jays would have an obvious franchise cornerstone to build around for years to come.
Now, they face the prospect of losing Guerrero to another team, and beginning a new era in 2026 without their franchise cornerstone.
Guerrero, who turns 26 in March, is expected to command a salary of $500 million or more.
More to come on this story from Newsweek Sports.
