ATLANTA — Whether it’s palling around with the participants during the Home Run Derby, picking the brains of teammates in the clubhouse or chatting up opponents on the field, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fully embraces the all-star experience.
“We’re talking about hitting, we’re talking about family, we’re talking about everything,” said the Toronto Blue Jays first baseman, who went 1-for-2 for the American League during his fifth appearance in the contest. “I just try to have fun with everybody, try to learn from other people. When you learn from other people, you can trust yourself and you can use that for yourself, in your approach, for your play.”
Best conversation this time?
“Aaron Judge,” Guerrero replied. “If I see him in the clubhouse, I always try to talk with him, talk about hitting, talk about approach. He’s a really good guy. He’s always trying to talk with me, no matter what happens.”
The two sluggers will see each other again, albeit under much different circumstances, on Monday, when the New York Yankees arrive in Toronto for a three-game series. Top spot in the American League East may very well be on the line, as the Blue Jays resume the season in first place, two games up on Judge’s Yankees.
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From sharing knowledge and a clubhouse to foes in an instant.
“Here at the All-Star Game, we’re not thinking about the season, we’re trying to enjoy every moment,” said Guerrero. “Friday, right away, I put my mindset to the season and we’ll still talk, but we’re playing against each other now.”
ALL-STAR RAY: Robbie Ray says Alek Manoah “is like a little brother to me,” and as the Blue Jays right-hander has been working his way back from reconstructive elbow surgery, the now-San Francisco Giants lefty has been sharing his own experiences with the Tommy John procedure.
Though the 2021 AL Cy Young Award winner with the Blue Jays returned last season, it’s only this year he’s started to feel like himself again, earning his second career all-star nod after posting a 2.65 ERA in 119 innings with 128 strikeouts over 20 starts.
“He’s a good kid and he’s got a good head on his shoulders,” Ray said of Manoah. “Just trying to talk him through the process and the recovery, understanding that it takes time to get the feel back, takes time to really feel normal again.”
Manoah’s first rehab outing post-surgery came in a Florida Complex League game Monday, when he allowed four runs, three earned, on a hit, two walks and a hit batter with one strikeout in a third of an inning.
Ray remembers the similar feeling of being erratic on July 24, 2024, in his return to the majors.
“I felt great coming back and it’s just, some days, you’re going to go out there and you’re not going to have a clue where the ball is going, even though you feel great, even though the ball’s coming out great,” said Ray. “My first game back, I was pitching at Dodger Stadium, first inning, I hit two guys, walk two guys, walked a run in, but then didn’t give up a hit for the rest of the game (five innings, eight strikeouts). I was hitting guys with front sliders and it was like, What’s going on? You feel like everything is good because you feel healthy. That timing, that takes time to get back.”
After a normal off-season and a proper spring training this year, he said now “is as close as I would say that I’ve been to feeling like I did in that 2021 season.”
ARMING ADAM: San Diego Padres reliever Jason Adam spent the 2019 season with the Toronto Blue Jays and showed flashes of the form that made him a first-time all-star. But it wasn’t until he joined the Tampa Bay Rays in 2022, after two seasons with the Chicago Cubs, that he found himself on the mound.
How did the Rays unlock his potential?
“A lot of it was similar to what I heard in Toronto,” said Adam. “I feel like I had decent success for early career in Toronto (23 games, a 2.91 ERA in 21.2 innings with 18 strikeouts), it was just a tight roster. When I got to Tampa, it was basically they didn’t like my curveball as much, so they said just go fastball, slider, changeup, throw each pitch randomly and aim down the middle. That got me in the zone a little bit more consistently, I was ahead of hitters and, obviously, when you’re ahead of hitters, pitching becomes a lot easier.”
Adam posted a 1.56 ERA in 67 games that first season with the Rays and then, in 2023, was traded ahead of the deadline to San Diego for prospects Homer Bush, Dylan Lesko and J.D. Gonzalez, underlining how much his value shot up.
The Rays’ reputation for getting the best out of pitchers “100 per cent,” helped Adam buy in to the information they had for him. “I was like, all right, they’ve got something, and I thought it was going to be some big mechanical breakdown. And it was (changing his pitch mix and target point). I was like, that’s it? But they do this every year and I was at the point of my career, sink or swim. So I was like, Whatever you say, I’m in. And then that first month of the season, I had a lot of success with it, so I was like, All right, I guess this works, I’ll just keep rolling.”
QUOTEABLE: “Crazy. I can’t wait for that. I’m saving myself for the Derby in Toronto. They’ve got to figure it out and do it in 2028.” – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the possibility of an All-Star Game in Toronto
