The Blue Jays Finally Caved To Vladdy Guerrero Jr.'s Leverage And Handed Him a 14 Year, $500M Contract Extension, The Third Biggest Deal In Baseball History

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For years now, the Toronto Blue Jays have taken big swings on various prominent free agent and come up with nothing but air. Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Snell, and Max Fried they all had big interest in and/or made aggressive offers towards —nothing. 

Those misses meant the fate of the Blue Jays organization future hung in the balance with what happened in the 2025 season. Both Vladdy Jr. and Bo Bichette were set to be free agents once the season came to a close. You could not lose them both and have any standing left with your fanbase. After failed negotiations in the offseason led to Vladdy saying he wouldn't negotiate during the season, Toronto finally caved to his number late last night. 

Is it an overpay for a first baseman? Absolutely. Is this a desperate move from an organization that simply needed to get a W on the board? Without question. Was this necessary? 100%. Will it end up amounting to any sort of Blue Jays resurgence? Not anytime soon. 

It would kinda be shocking to look back at this contract and see it as a good baseball move for the Blue Jays. 14 years for a player who will almost certainly be a full-time DH in half that time if they're lucky. That being said, if Toronto lost Vladdy to the Mets or Red Sox, both teams whose fanbases were salivating at the chance to add that caliber of bat to their weaponry in the offseason, it would be a nuclear meltdown for the Canada faithful. The Blue Jays couldn't let him walk and Vladdy held all the leverage. In the end he won and received the third biggest contract ever handed out in baseball history. 

Make no mistake about it, Vladdy is an incredible hitter when he's locked in. His 2021 and 2024 seasons were spectacular. In between those seasons, however, he was average by his standards. While I'm sure with the money secured now he'll relax and mash, it's just scary to hand over that kind of money to a guy who isn't consistently dominant. Unless Vladdy had an identical 2025 season as he did in 2024, I don't know if he touches $500M in free agency. Again, that was the beauty of the leverage he had vs. Toronto. 

In the end I'm pretty relieved about this. I don't think he was ever coming to the Yankees/the Yankees were going full boar for him. Now Boston or the Mets? That's a whole different story and if I were to predict I would have had him ending up in Boston. Didn't need that, although their offense doesn't need much as it is if you tuned into SNB last night. The Mets fans seemed to have Vladdy penciled into their future plans

So much for that. 

Someone this does directly impact? Kyle Tucker, who is now set to be the prized free agent this offseason. While Tucker is two years older, he's a better all around player than Vladdy. He may not peak as high as Vladdy can, but the consistent high level is always there for him. If a first baseman is fetching $500M, I think he will do the exact same if not better even if he's a smidge older. This is the man the Yankees must prioritize in the offseason. He can extend their World Series window with Judge/Cole while opening his own for the years after. Considering they tried to trade for him in the offseason, I expect them to be right at the top of the bidding. They cannot afford to lose that one like they did Soto .

For now, congrats to the Blue Jays for keeping their home grown, Canadian born superstar. They needed a win so badly. I don't think this will do anything but cause Vladdy to rot there for the rest of his career, but I could be wrong. Maybe him sticking around for the next decade+ will entice other free agents to join him. Or they'll continue to be dissuaded by the Toronto taxes and constant travel to another country. We shall see!