Dunedin, Fla.-The first base Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays failed to free agency in November.
“They have their numbers; I have my numbers,” Guerrero said Tuesday.
Guerrero, four times All-Star and son of the Hall of Fame Vladimir Guerrero, said he had established a deadline of the 9 pm on Monday, but the last call of the tiles arrived at 10:30 pm when asked if The team was close to what I was asking, Guerrero simply said: “No.”
General manager Ross Atkins, meanwhile, said that the tile offers were “very, very aggressive.”
“I am sure we exhaust the communication, ideas, thoughts and communications every dollar,” Atkins said Tuesday. “… the offers we made for Vlad would have been in records and would have become one of the best paid players in the game.”
Without an agreement instead, Guerrero said he plans to cut the conversations and play the season as an imminent free agent, but also said later that “he will not close the door” in a “realistic” offer of the Blue Jays.
“Listen, I want to be here. I want to be a blue jay for the rest of my career,” said Guerrero. “But it's free agency. It's a business. So I'm going to have to listen to 29 more teams and they will have to compete for that.”
Atkins said the tiles would be respectful of Guerrero's wishes and that “we will never close any doors.”
The inability to reach an agreement is the last blow for the tiles, whose search for the talent of franchise caliber in recent years was a black brand for the franchise. The heavy recruitment of Toronto of the Bidirectional Star Shohei Ohtani and the gardener Juan Soto ended up disappointing, while signing with the Dodgers of Los Angeles and the Mets of New York, respectively, and the possible departure of their best local talent from the hall of the hall of The fame Roy foundy. even more acute.
“Soto's agreement had nothing to do with my decision,” Guerrero said. “Even before that, I knew my value. I knew my number.”
Guerrero said the tiles had known about their deadline since last season, and that I did not want the negotiations to have a spring training and became a distraction.
“I don't want my teammates to go through any distraction,” Guerrero said. “I'm here today, I'm ready and I want to win many games, and I want to get to the playoffs. That's all.”
Toronto could explore an exchange for Guerrero, who would guarantee one of the greatest returns in recent memory. The tiles, the fountains said, are more inclined to start the season with Guerrero in their alignment and reassess the possibility of a trade as the July deadline is approaching.
“We feel that we have a great team,” Atkins said. “Vladdy is a large part of this, and Vladdy will continue to be a large part.”
Guerrero, meanwhile, said there is no animosity towards the main office of the Jays.
“I love the city. I love fans,” Guerrero said. “I mean, it's difficult, but at the end of the day, as I say, it's a business. I will do everything I have to stay here with the tiles. I love here. I want to be here.”
During his six seasons in Toronto, Guerrero has become one of the most fearsome hitters of the game. Last season, he hit .323/.396/.544 with 30 homers and 103 ranked races. And in November, it is expected that large market suitors will produce it with some of the largest contracts of contracts in baseball.
Following the 15 years, $ 765 million hire that the METS of this winter gave Soto, who, together with Guerrero and Fernando Tatis Jr., were part of the international firm class of all time in 2015, the potential Jackpot of the free agent for Guerrero exceeds what the tiles were willing to offer.
They had tried to lock Guerrero in the long term for years in vain. With the deadline, negotiations that had been sporadic during winter this week in the hope of reaching an agreement.
Without one in his place, Guerrero will report the first complete training of the Blue Jays on Tuesday with the spectrum of his free agency that will look over the Toronto season after a last place in the American League East last year.
Since he debuted shortly after his twentieth birthday in 2019 and home run 15 times as a rookie, Guerrero has been one of the most recognized baseball players. His rupture season occurred in 2021, when Guerrero ended in second place with Aaron Judge in the MVP vote of the American League, hitting .311/.401/.601 with 48 homers and 111 ranked races.
Guerrero continued with a couple of seasons of solid expectations but from Below in 2022 and 2023, already mid -May of last season, he wore a low .750 OPS while the Blue Jays fought on the road to the end. In his last 116 games, the 2021 warrior resurfaced, when he hit .343/.407/.604 with 26 homers and 84 ranked races.
Between the free agency of Guerrero and the Bo Bichette campocort after the 2025 season, the tiles faced a possible calculation. While Bichette will play the season and it is expected not to sign with the tiles, the team hoped that an extension for Guerrero would give them a franchise player around which he could build.
With a payroll that is expected to exceed the luxury tax threshold of $ 241 million, the tiles will present a team with playoff aspirations, and one that could easily be found towards the lower part of the classification, with the defender of the Yankees de los Yankees To the New York Yankees, very improved Boston Red Sox, always solid rays of the Bay of Tampa and Orioles de Baltimore young and talented in the same division.
Already this winter, Toronto shook the signings of Soto and the first base Pete Alonso with the Mets, the left -handed Max Fried with the Yankees and the painting player Alex Bregman with the red socks to reorganize his list. Toronto gave the gardener Anthony Santander a five -year contract and $ 92.5 million of $ 92.5 million, brought to the future member of the Hall of Fame Max Scherzer in a one -year contract, $ 15.5 million, reinforced his globe with the candidates To the rights Jeff Hoffman and Yimi García, and was negotiated by the second winning base of the Platinum glove, Andrés Giménez.
Toronto's long -term commitments will allow significant financial flexibility in the future, particularly if the hundreds of millions offered to Guerrero reactive. In addition to Guerrero, Bichette and Scherzer, the right Chris Bassitt and the reliefs Chad Green and Erik Swanson are free agents after this season. After 2026, the nine -digit offers of the gardener George Springer and the right Kevin Gausman also leave the books.
Building around Guerrero would have been a good place to start. One of the only dozen players in MLB with at least two seasons of six or more victories above the replace It usually translates into great success.
Like his father, who hit 449 homers and hit .318 during a 16 -year -old race, Guerrero has rare skills to ball, particularly for a player with the power of the first scale. In his six seasons of MLB, Guerrero has reached .288/.363/.500 with 160 home runs, 507 driven races and 551 strikeouts against 349 walks on 3,540 appearances on the plate.
“My dad played many years, and never won the World Series,” said Guerrero. “And I always say that my personal goal is to win a world series and give the ring to my dad. So that's all I am looking for.”
Originally a third base, Guerrero changed to the first base during the 2020 season cut by the pandemic. If the Blue Jays have signed Alonso, they pointed out the possibility that Guerrero returned full time to third, where he played a dozen games last year.
Without an extension instead, the 6 -foot 2 and 245 pounds will have to wait to restart a market that had previously been exceeded for the extension of eight years and $ 248 million Miguel Cabrera signed just his 31st birthday in 2014.
The teams without long -term solutions in the first base beyond 2025 that could point to Guerrero, who turns 26 in March, include the Yankees (Paul Goldschmidt is in a one -year agreement) and Mets (Alonso can opt for Do not receive your two -year contract following the season).
