{"id":719461,"date":"2026-06-07T05:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/719461\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T05:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:33:22","slug":"blue-jays-facing-troubling-vladimir-guerrero-jr-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/719461\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Facing Troubling Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest reasons for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>\u2019 success in the 2025 MLB<\/a> Postseason was first baseman<\/a>Vladimir Guerrero Jr<\/a>. His monster October helped propel the club to the World Series.<\/p>\n

Now seven months removed from that playoff run, the club is drowning. At 31-34, Toronto is fourth in the American League East and eight games back of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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While injuries have played a role in this, the performance of a healthy Guerrero Jr. has not been helping.<\/p>\n

\"Toronto<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27)\u00a9 John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has played in 63 games and is batting .292 with a .383 on-base percentage and a .764 OPS. He has only 3 home runs and 25 RBI.<\/p>\n

The feared slugger has lost all of his thump this season. His 90.7 MPH average exit velocity is well below his career norms. His hard hit rate (batted balls above 95 EV) of 45% is also well below his usual clip.<\/p>\n

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Guerrero Jr. is making the most contact of his career, at an 82.2% rate. He\u2019s also striking out a lot less than in previous years. With that said, most Toronto fans would probably be fine with the strikeouts for the big power numbers if this was the alternative.<\/p>\n

A recent post on X by Daniele Franceschi captured fans\u2019 frustration well. \u201cI\u2019m starting to wonder if Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is going to reach double-digit homers in 2026. Some of these swing decisions are inexcusable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The biggest problem has been those swing decisions. Guerrero Jr. has a chase rate of 31%, the highest of his career, beating 2022\u2019s 30.5%. While he\u2019s making a good amount of contact with these pitches off the plate he often wraps into weak contact instead of waiting for pitches to crush in the zone.<\/p>\n

The concept of such a revered hitter failing to reach 10 home runs over a full season at age 27 is almost unfathomable. Guerrero Jr. has slammed at least 23 in every season since 2021.<\/p>\n

The seventh-year man is in year one of a 14-year, $500 million contract with the Blue Jays. His play right now does not indicate that of someone getting paid nearly 36 million dollars a year.<\/p>\n

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While the club waits for its injured list to shrink, they need Vladdy to start producing as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

Related: Blue Jays Facing Decision After Alejandro Kirk News<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest reasons for the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 success in the 2025 MLB Postseason was first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[1820,5,377,2554,75886,22094,4,68,282,70,2553,93],"class_list":["post-719461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-american-league-east","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-daniele-franceschi","tag-guerrero-jr","tag-mlb","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116707197349867415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719461","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=719461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}