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Blue Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is going to remain in Toronto long-term—at least if team president and CEO Mark Shapiro gets his way.
The normally reserved and deliberate Shapiro gave an extended set of comments regarding Guerrero’s upcoming free agency after the 2025 season, which is set to lead the upcoming class of available players, and said the two sides are philosophically closer on a contract extension than what has been previously suggested.
“I think we’re going to sign him. I think we’re going to extend him,” Shapiro said. “We have such a clear alignment on the desired outcome.
“Vlad wants to play his whole career as a Toronto Blue Jay. We want him to end his career in a Blue Jays uniform and be a true legacy player for the Toronto Blue Jays. That’s a pretty good place to start,” he said.
The 26-year-old Guerrero cut off contract extension talks a month ago and previously indicated a substantial financial divide with Toronto. That gap then appeared to winnow as the first baseman later said he was seeking less than $600 million over a long-term deal, a figure far below the record-setting $765 million pact between Juan Soto and the Mets. The Blue Jays have reportedly offered about $500 million over 14 years, with some deferrals that lower the present-day value of the proposal to around $450 million.
“I’ve always felt good about the whole thing,” Guerrero said in response to Shapiro’s comments. “I’m good with that. [I’m] just going to keep working hard and be optimistic, [and] not shut the door on them.”
Public Positioning
Shapiro’s comments may be, at least in part, an attempted signal to the market that no other team will be able to match Toronto’s offer—even as Guerrero has said the Blue Jays “are going to have to compete with 29 other teams.”
Furthering that argument was Shapiro’s assertion that Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani stands alone in having an economic justification for his contract that transcends on-field performance.
“Let me clear. There’s only been one player in my time in Major League Baseball who had a marketing case that significantly and meaningfully offsets the value of his contract. One player. Only one,” Shapiro said, referring to Ohtani. “In every other case, I would say the only other thing that actually sells tickets in the hundreds of thousands is winning. There are players who have magnetic personalities, like Vlad, who amplify winning and can really help, but fans don’t come to see great players on losing teams.”
As Shapiro sought to make that claim, the Blue Jays also came up short in recent years in landing several major free agents, including Ohtani, Soto, and Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.
