BOSTON -- Forty-eight years ago, on April 7, 1977, the Toronto Blue Jays played their first game.
A Zamboni of sorts circled the infield of Exhibition Stadium, clearing the snow, but there was no answer for the bitter cold and whipping winds. It was a brutal, makeshift stadium on the shores of Lake Ontario with a crested field to let the water run off. When the catcher crouched behind home plate, they could only see their center fielder from the waist up.
It¡¯s only fitting, then, that the clock was allowed to slip 15 minutes past midnight for news of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.¡¯s 14-year, $500 million extension to break ¡ on April 7, 2025.
Since that snowy day in 1977, a total of 948 players have appeared in a game for the Blue Jays. There¡¯s real history here. With all of those reasons to look back, Guerrero is once again the reason to look forward.
Guerrero has a chance to be the greatest player to ever wear the Blue Jays¡¯ uniform. It¡¯s sitting right in front of him now, spread across the next 14 years.
Who is Guerrero chasing?
This mirrors the conversations we have about the Baseball Hall of Fame, trying to find players who not only had elite peaks but sustained that success across a decade-plus of dominance.
It¡¯s so important, in this conversation, that Guerrero can be what Mark Shapiro calls a ¡°legacy player¡±. So many of the great Blue Jays, particularly through those great teams of the 1980s and the World Series wins in 1992-93, spent only portions of their careers here. The peaks are brilliant, but the longevity is a little trickier.
Among position players, Guerrero is chasing names like Jos¨¦ Bautista, Carlos Delgado, Tony Fernandez, Jesse Barfield and others, but if he continues playing at this level for even the first half of his extension, he should have no trouble blowing past the WAR value those great players produced in Toronto. At 17.0 WAR (FanGraphs), Guerrero is already close to halfway to catching Bautista (36.0).
Roy Halladay and Dave Stieb represent the mountaintop. The great Halladay pitched 12 seasons with the Blue Jays, and no player has ever produced more than his 48.6 WAR, while Stieb, who is one of the most underrated pitchers of that era, was worth 43.6 WAR. All of these are such difficult comparisons, though, because everyone involved has the peak, the longevity or the championship moments, but rarely all three. This isn¡¯t a Yankees player chasing Babe Ruth, a Giants player chasing Willie Mays or a Pirates player chasing Honus Wagner.
By the numbers
The counting stats matter here, just like they do for the Hall of Fame.
Guerrero has 160 career home runs, so chasing down Carlos Delgado¡¯s club record (336) should be no problem if he continues at this pace. If he can pass 400 and chase that ever-important 500-homer benchmark is a conversation for down the road, but Delgado¡¯s home run record and RBI record (1,058) are both well within Guerrero¡¯s sights.
He¡¯s already 14th in franchise history with 915 hits, so Fernandez¡¯s mark of 1,583 should fall in a few seasons. Guerrero has played in 829 games entering this series against the Red Sox, so while Fernandez¡¯s mark of 1,450 will take a little longer to reach, you can start to see how all of these records aren¡¯t just possibilities, they¡¯re sitting right there for Guerrero to smash.
If Guerrero can stay healthy and play out even most of this contract at a high level, he will rewrite this organization¡¯s record books.
The moments matter
This conversation demands championships, but first, it demands moments.
Bautista didn¡¯t leave Toronto with a ring, but The Bat Flip from the 2015 ALDS will live forever. This organization has seen Cy Young Awards, MVP Awards and back-to-back World Series championships.
Yes, Vladdy has had some incredible moments over the years, but there¡¯s no ring on his finger, and the Blue Jays have not won a postseason game since 2016, three years before he debuted.
Guerrero needs to build his own lore in Toronto. These Blue Jays are bigger and bolder than the teams Delgado and Halladay tried to drag forward, so the expectations need to be bolder, too.
We¡¯ll always tell stories about Bautista, Delgado, Halladay, Stieb and so many others. We¡¯ll always talk about Joe Carter¡¯s home run.
Now, everyone who watches a Blue Jays game is watching a player we¡¯ll likely talk about forever. Guerrero is already a great player, but by spending his entire career with this organization, he has a chance to transcend everyone who¡¯s come before him.