Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is a right-handed hitting first baseman who turns 27 in March. And, yeah, we really don’t need a ‘better know’ for him.
He signed a 14-year contract extension back in April of last year, worth half a billion dollars.
Seven seasons into his MLB career, he has a 25.9 bWAR, a .288/.366/.495 batting line and 183 home runs.
Vlad is moving up the Blue Jays leader boards:
The Jays’ position player leader in bWAR is Jose Bautista at 38.4, so Vlad needs 12.5 more to get there. I’d imagine he’ll get there before that contract is up. The top pitcher in bWAR is Dave Stieb, at 56.9, which will take Vlad a little longer to top.
And he’s 153 back of Carlos Delgado in home runs. He should pass that with several years left on his contract.
Vlad had a much better second half (.314/376/.515) than first half (.277/.384/434) in his 2025 season. And then he had an all-world playoff run, hitting .397/.494/.795 with 8 home runs (8 home runs in 18 games, that would be 72 home runs in 162 games). That’s really turning it on when we needed him. I’d love him to carry that over to this season.
Beyond that, I’m glad that the talk about moving him to third has ended. He’s the guy you move other players around for; you don’t move him for anyone else.
I don’t see him as a Gold Glove first baseman, but he does make some sensational plays. Like this one:
Last year, Steamer figure Guerrero to play 150 games, hit 33 home runs, with a .297/.375/529 line. He ended up playing 156 games, with 23 home runs, and a .292/.381/.467 line, so Steamer was a fair bit high on homers, but the rest was pretty close.
This year Steamer thinks he’ll play 143 games (I think I’d take the over), with 32 home runs, a .299/.385/.532 line and a 4.8 fWAR.