The announcement was made on April 9, and the extension doesn’t kick in until next season, but for me Saturday is the first day of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s 14-year, $500-million contract.
And I say that optimistically. Without malicious intent.
Funny thing, this business of Major League Baseball’s post-season.
I mean, it’s harder to get into these playoffs than any other. We don’t let half the damned league into the post-season like everyone else. We play 162 games in the chill of a northeast April and fall and the sweltering heat of a Midwest summer. Outdoors, mostly. Fail two-thirds of the time and you can still get into our Hall of Fame. The defence has possession of the ball. Randomness is rampant and, for the longest time, so was Angel Hernandez.
The regular season matters more than any other sport. Its numbers are celebrated; we only count the ones racked up over 162 when we talk career standards. Barry Bonds’ record is 762 homers, not the 771 you get when you add in the post-season.
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Watch Blue Jays in ALDS on Sportsnet
The Toronto Blue Jays’ post-season journey begins Saturday with Game 1 of the ALDS at Rogers Centre. Catch the action on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
But then we get to the post-season and suddenly it makes or breaks reputations. We get goofy.
Case in point? Look at Aaron Judge: a soon-to-be three-time most valuable player with 368 home runs who, when he retires, could be the greatest right-handed hitter of all time. In terms of stature and demeanour, he is the perfect inheritor of Derek Jeter’s New York Yankees captaincy. Without him, the Yankees wouldn’t have made it to the post-season.
But until Judge wins a World Series, every post-season – every post-season! – will be a referendum on his career.
He’s been booed in the playoffs. At home. On multiple occasions.
Comes with the territory. And while Toronto isn’t the Bronx, it does have an owner who has said publicly that his goal is to win a World Series – and who has given his front office the material and financial means to do so.
Half a billion dollars of that is earmarked for Guerrero, who hasn’t put up similar career regular-season numbers to Judge’s yet, but also has delivered mostly empty calories in the post-season.
He knows it, too. Asked Wednesday what he has learned most from his post-seasons, Guerrero matter-of-factly responded:
“Losses,” he said with a shrug.
The Blue Jays have made the playoffs three times in Guerrero’s tenure. They are 0-6 and Guerrero is 3-for-22 with one run batted in and, yes, one pick-off at second base. There has been something catastrophic about the Blue Jays during those post-seasons: the collision between Bo Bichette and George Springer and a franchise-altering breakdown against the Seattle Mariners … and the whole Jose Berrios thing.
Those situations have somewhat over-shadowed Guerrero’s post-season woes. The fact that Bichette’s first two post-seasons weren’t much better has also given him a little cover.
It’s tough, this whole post-season, contextual thing.
Guerrero will earn $40 million next year, the first year of a deal that will carry an average annual value of $35.7 million. This year, nine players were in the middle of contracts that paid them as much in terms of AAV. Only three – Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Alex Bregman – have won rings.
Ty Cobb. Bonds. Tony Gwynn. Ken Griffey, Jr. Ichiro. They didn’t make as much … but they didn’t win a World Series en route to the Hall of Fame. Neither did Vladimir Guerrero, Sr., who was 1-for-14 in his only World Series appearance.
And while Jeter won five World Series rings, it’s not like he did it on his own. John Wetteland, Scott Brosius – Scott Brosius! – Mariano Rivera and Hideki Matsui won as many World Series most valuable awards as Jeter during his time with the Yankees. He had Jorge Posada and Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez and Andy Pettitte around him.
Guerrero had some Jays post-season highlights mentioned to him on Wednesday and was asked whether he envisioned himself creating a signature moment. He picked Joe Carter’s walk-off home run in 1993. With a caveat.
“I’d say I’d want to be like Carter: winning,” Guerrero said. “Home run … double … for me, it’s winning.”
Look, Guerrero, Jr., did not have the type of season that will put him in the MVP conversation. But he’s come a long way from the guy whose weight was a concern – remember those days? – and who didn’t have a position. Contract or not, he posts up. He’s a good teammate, and do not sleep on him being a good salesman for this organization among his free-agent peers.
We chide each other about small sample sizes in the regular season. But when they occur in October, we reach the broadest and often most destructive conclusions. I know I’m guilty of it. So are people who should know better than me.
I’m not falling into that trap with Vladdy, because 14 years with a committed ownership group is something that gives me comfort and no small amount of confidence. He has time to put this team on his back. Maybe this fall. Maybe next regular season or next fall. He’s allowed himself to look ahead a bit, saying if he ever did win a World Series ring he would give it his father. After all, winning – winning writ large – is the ultimate form of repayment.
