When spring training arrived and the Toronto Blue Jays had not yet reached a contract extension with superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., it seemed possible — if not likely — that he was going to be playing somewhere else by the time the 2026 season rolled around. Guerrero Jr. had set a deadline for contract negotiations, he seemed adamant he was not going to negotiate during the season, and the whole situation seemed grim for the Blue Jays.
But there is always one big truth in professional sports: Money talks.
The Blue Jays proved that by not giving up in their quest to keep their superstar, and on Sunday night they reportedly locked in Guerrero Jr. to a whopping 14-year, $500 million contract extension according to reports from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
This is the third-largest contract in Major League Baseball history, coming in behind only the recent $700 million deal signed by Shohei Ohtani with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the $765 million contract for Juan Soto with the New York Mets.
This is an absolutely monumental win for the Blue Jays in a lot of ways.
For one, it keeps an MVP-level player that they drafted and developed in their organization for what should be the remainder of his career.
Second, it comes after the Blue Jays had missed out on several top-tier free agents in recent years, including Ohtani, Soto and most recently and Roki Sasaki.
If they had lost Guerrero Jr. after the other near misses, it would have been a crushing blow for the organization and fan base. It is one thing to lose out on free agents who never played for you to the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Mets in an open-bidding situation. But not being able to keep your own homegrown star is something else entirely.
This at least shows they can do the latter. That matters. A lot.
The 26-year-old Guerrero Jr. is still very much in the prime of his career and should have several big years ahead of him. He has been one of the American League’s best hitters since arriving in the Major Leagues and has a career OPS+ of 137 (with 100 being a league-average hitter).
He is the Blue Jays’ top player, the biggest draw and has finished in the top six of the MVP voting two different times, including the 2024 season and a runner-up finish during the 2021 season. Now they have him in place for the foreseeable future and do not have to worry about any more contract negotiations or distractions with him, or hear opposing fan bases try to recruit him. He is a Blue Jay. He is staying a Blue Jay.
