{"id":94913,"date":"2025-01-31T21:16:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T02:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=94913"},"modified":"2025-01-31T21:16:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T02:16:26","slug":"blue-jays-vladimir-guerrero-jr-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/31\/blue-jays-vladimir-guerrero-jr-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays in Negotiations to Extend All-Star with a $450M Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Extending Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a long-term deal has been a top priority for the Toronto Blue Jays, but they may be running out of time. Back in December, Guerrero revealed that Toronto offered him a $340 million extension that was “not even close to what we are looking for.” The four-time All-Star has set a deadline of February 17th, the day before Toronto holds its first full-squad workout, for a deal to be reached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blue Jays in Negotiations to Extend All-Star with a $450M Agreement<\/h2>\n

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/span><\/a> has spent his entire career in Toronto and has become the face of the Blue Jays franchise. The Canadian-born, Dominican-raised superstar is coming off a career year for the Jays, batting .323\/.396\/.544 over 159 games. Guerrero hit 30 homers and recorded 103 RBIs, with a career-low 13.8% strikeout rate to win his second Silver Slugger. The 25-year-old first baseman made his fourth consecutive All-Star Game and finished sixth in the American League MVP voting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rumors have been swirling that Guerrero and the Jays were working toward a deal<\/a>, but nothing has officially happened yet. Guerrero has said that he wants to remain in Toronto long-term, but the two sides are reportedly $100 million apart. <\/span>Bob Nightengale of USA Today<\/span><\/a> reported earlier this month that Guerrero is seeking a deal worth at least $450 million. Jim Bowden of The Athletic<\/a> laid out a potential contract extension for both sides worth $477 million over 12 years. Either deal would set a new record for an infielder, surpassing the 11-year, $350 million contract<\/a> that Manny Machado<\/a> signed with the San Diego Padres.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can The Blue Jays Get A Deal Done?<\/h3>\n

Guerrero, who owns a career .288\/.363\/.500 batting line, will become a free agent after the 2025 season. Going into his age-26 season, the Gold Glove first baseman will have already made $76 million during his arbitration years. Going into his age-26 season, the Gold Glove first baseman will have already made $76 million during his arbitration years. Considering that Toronto offered Juan Soto<\/a> a 15-year, $600 million contract, signing Guerrero, who has nearly identical stats, to a deal worth $40 million annually is not far-fetched.<\/span><\/p>\n

First basemen generally are paid less than outfielders, but with Toronto out<\/a> of the <\/span>Pete Alonso<\/span><\/a> mix, they likely want to see what his contract is worth first. <\/span>Alonso is four years older and hits more for power than he does hitting for both power and average.<\/span><\/p>\n

Toronto has gone all-in this winter after their disappointing 2024 season to prove to Guerrero they want to compete. But if they build a contender around Guerrero, they must act fast because Spring Training is coming up. He<\/span>\u00a0would likely become the third highest-paid player in baseball history, behind Soto and <\/span>Shohei Ohtani<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extending Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a long-term deal has been a top priority for the Toronto Blue Jays, but they may be running out of time. Back in December, Guerrero revealed that Toronto offered him a $340 million extension that was “not even close to what we are looking for.” The four-time All-Star has set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":94948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1071],"tags":[2133,2402,640],"class_list":["post-94913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejays","category-mlb","tag-juan-soto","tag-pete-alonso","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94913"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94949,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94913\/revisions\/94949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}