No deal reached between Vlad Jr., Blue Jays on extension

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Tuesday morning at 8:01 ET, the future of the Blue Jays turned.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. strolled out of the clubhouse with that big, brilliant smile, greeting security guards and team staff as he shouted across the complex for his interpreter to come join him in front of the cameras. It all felt so unusually joyful, but then, as the cameras began to roll, Guerrero¡¯s face hardened.

No, he and the Blue Jays had not reached an agreement on an extension before his deadline, which was at 9:00 p.m. ET Monday night. The phone rang for the last time at 10:30 p.m., but it didn¡¯t matter. Instead of celebrating an extension that would give this organization a star to orbit around for the next decade, Tuesday morning brought a cloud of uncertainty that will hang over this organization for the next nine months.

¡°They expressed what they had. I expressed what I had. I¡¯m here, and we didn¡¯t get an agreement. Now, they¡¯re going to have to compete with 29 more teams,¡± Guerrero said.

The fun part is over. This isn¡¯t the Guerrero we¡¯ve come to know since he signed with the organization on July 2, 2015, the baby-faced prodigy who represented the next great hope for baseball in Toronto. This isn¡¯t the Guerrero who turned teenage pitchers into grainy highlight reels in the Minor Leagues. This isn¡¯t the Guerrero who debuted in 2019 or nearly won an MVP Award in ¡®21. All of those Vladdys are gone now, all at risk of being memories.

This version of Vladdy is a grown man who now stands on the doorstep of baseball¡¯s business reality. Over and over, Guerrero wanted to make one thing clear as he addressed the negotiations, smoothly yet sternly. This is about business, nothing else.

¡°I love the city. I love the fans. This is hard,¡± Guerrero said. ¡°But at the end of the day, it¡¯s business. I will do anything, everything that I have to stay here with the Blue Jays because I love it here. I want to be here. Like I say, though, it¡¯s business, and I want to be good with that, too.¡±

For nearly a decade, Blue Jays fans have had the privilege of knowing Guerrero with the business part removed. It¡¯s loomed in the distance at times, through arbitration and the early talks of an extension, but Guerrero has felt like a player who belongs in a Blue Jays uniform forever. He¡¯s a superstar who is not only beloved by the fan base, but who wants to be in Toronto just as badly as the fans want him there. It¡¯s the type of relationship Blue Jays fans have always wanted.

The two sides were never close, according to Guerrero, who answered with a straight and simple ¡°no.¡± While GM Ross Atkins didn¡¯t want to touch that word, calling it ¡°too big of a word to talk specifically about,¡± club president Mark Shapiro was much more direct. There¡¯s no such thing as close, Shapiro said ¨C a deal is either done or not done. Shapiro says the club allowed itself to get emotional, even stretching beyond its own valuation because of how deeply those involved care about Guerrero.

¡°On a personal level, there¡¯s disappointment, because I recognize it¡¯s special when you have a player who was signed, developed, came to the big leagues and played his whole career with one team,¡± Shapiro said. ¡°I think about players like Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken Jr., Kirby Puckett and what it can mean to be a legacy player, a franchise player. That was ¡ª and is ¡ª our hope for Vladdy.¡±

This was echoed by Atkins, but Guerrero is clearly the one driving the bus here. So far, he¡¯s done a fine job of it.

This deadline was put in place not only to give Guerrero, himself, some peace of mind, but also to keep this cloud away from his teammates. Granted, both Guerrero and his teammates will still be asked about this exact topic countless times as the 2025 season wears on, but now they can point to Guerrero¡¯s deadline and his preference, which he shared clearly on Tuesday, to not talk about this again.

The Blue Jays will have another chance in free agency, sure. This organization has been chasing superstars, though, from Shohei Ohtani to Juan Soto, Roki Sasaki and more. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been right in front of them all along, and if he leaves, this organization could spend years trying to find him again.