Vladimir Guerrero will be a Toronto Blue Jay for life, essentially. And agreeing to the game’s second-largest contract is proof there’s a dance partner for almost everyone in Major League Baseball.
Guerrero’s 14-year, deferral-free $500 million extension trails only the great Juan Soto’s $765 million deal in value. It stops shy of Shohei Ohtani’s nice round number of $700 million, but Guerrero will see all the money before he’s on the wrong side of 40.
And it ends a long-running staring contest between franchise and player that intensified when the sides could not come to an agreement by the beginning of spring training.
While extensions have been doled out like so many Oprah studio gifts since Opening Day, Guerrero’s is one of one. As is he - which the Blue Jays were wise to realize.
Young money
At 26, Guerrero was bound for free agency at that magic age that equals unprecedented riches. Think Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and, yes, Soto, all reaping the benefits of being teenage or 20-ish prodigies who hit the market before their ages can be used against them.
At first glance, Guerrero falls just shy of those sluggers who all reset the contract bar in various meaningful fashions.
He’s had just one MVP-caliber season, a 2021 tour de force when he hit 48 home runs, amassed 6.5 WAR and only missed joining his Hall of Fame father in the MVP club because Ohtani existed.
The doomsayer might note that that season was effectively canceled out by a 2023 ...
