Mark Shapiro on Vlad Jr.: 'I think we're going to extend him'

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Mark Shapiro hasn’t changed his mind about how this will end.

Through all the deadlines and the noise, he still sees Vladimir Guerrero Jr. playing out the rest of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays.

"I think we're going to sign him. I think we're going to extend him,” Shapiro said on Thursday in the most direct and encouraging comments we’ve heard from the organization to date.

His reasons aren’t complicated. Shapiro’s beliefs, like everything he does, lean on logic and experience. The numbers are the complicated part and always will be in a negotiation of this magnitude, but he sees all of the pillars in place.

“We have such a clear alignment on the desired outcome,” Shapiro said. “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.”

The challenge, of course, is finding a sweet spot financially. If it was just about Guerrero loving the city of Toronto and feeling handsome in a certain shade of blue, this deal would be signed by now.

Instead, this story has hung over camp, lurching back to life each time you think it’s about to calm. Last week came reports that Guerrero and the Blue Jays were roughly $50 million apart, which Shapiro called “an oversimplification based upon only part of the information.” Just yesterday, a Spanish-language interview was released of Guerrero with Yancen Pujols in which Vladdy discusses his value in free agency, once again raising eyebrows after he claimed to not want this to be a “distraction.”

It’s important to note that the interview took place nearly two weeks ago, so there’s hope that Guerrero has learned from the past week-plus of coverage -- and distractions -- but this will be a story in every major market the Blue Jays travel to this season.

Shapiro isn’t worried about that noise, though. He’s focused on keeping Guerrero in Toronto for the rest of his career, and while everyone involved simply wants a happy ending here, Shapiro continued to reiterate that free agency can be part of this process.

The Blue Jays have proven, with their pursuits of Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and others, that they can hang with the big boys financially. This isn’t another Ohtani situation, though.

“Let me be clear. There’s only been one player in my time in Major League Baseball who had a marketing case that significantly and meaningfully offset the value of his contract. One player. Only one,” Shapiro said. “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.”

Shapiro has been around. He understands the rarity of superstars who play out an entire career with one team. Listening to him speak, you can sense his real appreciation for those players. But again, there’s something that connects them.

“I call those guys legacy players. My origins in the game are dotted with those players, from Brooks Robinson to Cal Ripken Jr. to Kirby Puckett,” Shapiro said. “Those are players that, for me, defined what it meant to be a baseball fan. That’s the fabric of why I’m in the game today. This is a guy who has the chance to do that here.”

Robinson, Ripken and Puckett all won a World Series. They weren’t just great players, they were part of great teams.

The Blue Jays had hoped that, by now, Guerrero would already have one of those rings shining on his finger. That’s why they brought in players like Hyun Jin Ryu, George Springer, Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and others to surround Vladdy and Bo Bichette. The group hasn’t won a postseason game yet.

Extending Guerrero would reset the clock on every conversation we have about this organization for the next decade. It would grab a fan base -- one which has stood by this franchise loyally through too many heartbreaks -- and pull it back in.

Guerrero’s deadline earlier in camp added a feeling of finality to this, but he’s not wearing another uniform yet. If this all plays out like Shapiro thinks, Vladdy never will.