{"id":678052,"date":"2026-04-18T01:42:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678052\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T01:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:42:29","slug":"are-tempers-boiling-over-for-vladimir-guerrero-jr-slow-starting-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678052\/","title":{"rendered":"Are tempers boiling over for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., slow-starting Blue Jays?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are tempers boiling over for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., slow-starting Blue Jays?<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frustrated after striking out and a big swing and miss in the eighth inning Thursday, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. didn’t want to stop talking. Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> pitcher Trevor Megill walked off the mound and toward the home dugout, hearing the one-sided conversation. He turned and brushed off the\u00a0Toronto Blue Jays star<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Attempting to make up for injuries to several key teammates, including\u00a0George Springs and Alejandro Kirk, Guerrero entered Friday slashing\u00a0.328\/.446\/.443, highlighted by\u00a0six multi-hit games. He’s not getting much help, especially from expected contributors like Nathan Lukes and Kazuma Okamoto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frustrations are mounting.<\/p>\n

Hampered Blue Jays seek contributors<\/p>\n

Scheduled to open a weekend series at the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> on Friday, the Blue Jays’ brass could be losing patience with both Lukes and Okamoto.<\/p>\n

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A postseason sensation last fall, Luke generated 17 hits and eight RBI as the Blue Jays qualified for the World Series. In his opening 13 appearances this season, Luke slashed\u00a0.065\/.118\/.065.<\/p>\n

His square-up rate\u00a0dipped from 30.3 percent in 2025 to over 16 percent this season.<\/p>\n

In April, he was 0-for-23.<\/p>\n

He was not listed in the starting lineup at Chase Field on Friday.<\/p>\n

Okamoto, who\u00a0signed a four-year, $60 million contract last offseason, was in the starting lineup against the Diamondbacks, batting seventh.<\/p>\n

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Known as a hitter who controlled the strike zone in NPB, Okamoto’s free-swinging MLB style made for a difficult transition, as he whiffed on nearly 35 percent of his swings.<\/p>\n

Through 17 games, he slashed .200\/.278\/.308 with 24 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

If the Guerrero is forced to carry the offense with little secondary support, look for the team’s frustrations to continue to grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are tempers boiling over for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., slow-starting Blue Jays? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[3426,22,5,377,2554,3685,59,4,8678,282,70,2553,1094,7966],"class_list":{"0":"post-678052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-alejandro-kirk","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-blue-jays","12":"tag-bluejays","13":"tag-kazuma-okamoto","14":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-nathan-lukes","17":"tag-toronto","18":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","19":"tag-torontobluejays","20":"tag-trevor-megill","21":"tag-vladimir-guerrero"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116423173269669955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}