Sources: Jays give Vlad Jr. 14-year, $500M deal

First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays are successful statement connected a 14-year, $500 cardinal declaration extension, pending physical, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan connected Sunday night.

This is simply a monumental, no-deferral woody to support the homegrown prima successful Toronto for the remainder of his career, and comes arsenic the 5-5 Blue Jays are successful the midst of a roadworthy travel that takes them to Fenway Park to conscionable the Boston Red Sox connected Monday.

Guerrero, 26, a four-time All-Star and lad of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, had said helium would not negociate during the play aft the sides failed to travel to an statement earlier helium reported to outpouring training. The sides continued talking, however, and came unneurotic connected a woody that is the 3rd largest successful Major League Baseball history, down lone Juan Soto's 15-year, $765 cardinal declaration with the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani's 10-year, $700 cardinal pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Blue Jays, snakebit successful caller years by Soto and Ohtani signing elsewhere, received a semipermanent committedness from their champion homegrown endowment since Hall of Famer Roy Halladay.

They had tried to fastener Guerrero up agelong word for years to nary avail. Toronto got a glimpse of Guerrero's endowment erstwhile helium debuted soon aft his 20th day successful 2019 and homered 15 times arsenic a rookie. His breakout play came successful 2021, erstwhile Guerrero finished 2nd to Aaron Judge successful American League MVP voting aft hitting .311/.401/.601 with 48 location runs and 111 RBIs.

Guerrero followed with a brace of solid-but-below-expectations seasons successful 2022 and 2023, and successful mid-May 2024, helium sported an OPS nether .750 arsenic the Blue Jays struggled en way to an eventual last-place finish. Over his past 116 games, the Guerrero of 2021 reemerged, arsenic helium deed .343/.407/.604 with 26 location runs and 84 RBIs.

With a payroll expected to transcend the luxury-tax threshold of $241 million, the Blue Jays ended the season's archetypal week atop the American League East standings. Toronto dropped to 5-3 connected Friday aft a nonaccomplishment to the Mets, successful which Guerrero collected a brace of singles, raising his play slash enactment to .267/.343/.367.

Between Guerrero and shortstop Bo Bichette's escaped bureau aft the 2025 season, the Blue Jays faced a imaginable reckoning. While Bichette is expected to play retired the play earlier hitting the unfastened market, Guerrero's woody lessens the sting of Toronto's pursuits of Ohtani successful 2023 and Soto successful 2024.

In summation to Soto, Toronto shook disconnected the signings of Soto and archetypal baseman Pete Alonso with the Mets, left-hander Max Fried with the New York Yankees and infielder Alex Bregman with the Boston Red Sox to retool their roster. Toronto gave outfielder Anthony Santander a heavy deferred five-year, $92.5 cardinal contract, brought successful aboriginal Hall of Famer Max Scherzer connected a one-year, $15.5 cardinal deal, bolstered its bullpen with right-handers Jeff Hoffman and Yimi Garcia, and traded for Platinum Glove-winning 2nd baseman Andres Gimenez, who is hitting cleanup.

Toronto's semipermanent commitments volition let for important fiscal flexibility going forward. In summation to Bichette and Scherzer, right-hander Chris Bassitt and relievers Chad Green and Erik Swanson are escaped agents aft this season. Following 2026, the nine-figure deals of outfielder George Springer and right-hander Kevin Gausman travel disconnected the books arsenic well.

Building astir Guerrero is simply a bully spot to start. One of lone a twelve players successful MLB with astatine slightest 2 seasons of six oregon much Wins Above Replacement since 2021, Guerrero consistently finds himself adjacent the apical of MLB leaderboards successful hardest-hit balls, a metric that typically translates to large success.

Like his father, who deed 449 location runs and batted .318 implicit a 16-year career, Guerrero has uncommon bat-to-ball skills, peculiarly for a subordinate with top-of-the-scale power. In his six MLB seasons, Guerrero has deed .288/.363/.499 with 160 location runs, 510 RBIs and 559 strikeouts against 353 walks.

Originally a 3rd baseman, Guerrero shifted to archetypal basal during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Had the Blue Jays signed Alonso, they signaled the anticipation of Guerrero returning afloat clip to third, wherever helium played a twelve games past year.

With the hold successful place, the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Guerrero is expected to stay astatine archetypal basal and reset a marketplace that antecedently had been topped by the eight-year, $248 cardinal hold Miguel Cabrera signed conscionable shy of his 31st day successful 2014.