Blue Jays' pursuit of Vladimir Guerrero Jr is over. Time to focus on baseball

Vladimir Guerrero Jr's future with the Blue Jays has always been about so much more than one baseball player.

As Guerrero rose through the Minor Leagues in 2017 and '18, becoming the best prospect on the planet, he represented hope for the next generation, hope for a new competitive window beyond those postseason teams led by Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson.

This «era» hasn't brought the postseason success everyone dreamed of, even as the Blue Jays spent big to insulate Guerrero and Bo Bichette with veteran talent, but that window isn't closing any more. It was just flung back open.

Once again, Guerrero represents that great hope, not just for the present, but for the rest of his career. The 16-year-old kid who signed with the Blue Jays back in 2015 is now tied to the organization through 2040.

So much of the Blue Jays' identity has become tied to Guerrero and Bichette, which is why their pending free agencies brought such a sense of anxiety to this season.

Yes, the Blue Jays have poured money into their stadium, their player development complex and their roster, but what would happen when the two stars this is built around walked away?

Chris Bassitt is a free agent after this season, too. Next year, Kevin Gausman's contract is up along with Daulton Varsho's. José Berrios has a player option after 2026, and if he keeps pitching like this, that's awfully attractive.

Those aren't as scary now, because once you hand Vladdy a half-billion dollars, the only option is to keep the pedal pressed to the floor for the next decade-plus. Any fear of a retreat and rebuild, however small, died as Sunday stumbled across midnight, into Monday.

Now, every single thing about this organization lives in a brighter light. The Anthony Santander and Andrés Giménez contracts immediately look better, even though both looked just fine to begin with.

Alejandro Kirk's recent five-year extension looks even better, too, and the Blue Jays are expected to explore an extension with Varsho before he reaches free agency, aiming to keep the trio of Kirk, Giménez and Varsho together up the middle, whose combined defensive brilliance may be unrivalled.

Now, Guerrero has the chance to become «a legacy player,» as club president and CEO Mark Shapiro recently put it. Shapiro listed some of the all-time greats, like Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr., all players whose careers came to mean so much more because they played for one team, one city.

Guerrero can take that one step further. He could play his entire career for one country, the country where he was born when his father played for the Montreal Expos. This has always been a dream match.

The fans matter, too. This is always the case, but especially now.

Guerrero is beloved in Canada. Even casual fans have clung to Guerrero dating back long before his MLB debut.

Think back to March of 2018, when an 18-year-old Guerrero hit a walk-off home run in Montreal's Olympic Stadium, where his father once played. Since then, he's been baseball's brightest prodigy, nearly won an MVP Award in 2021 and captured the hearts of fans by playing with joy, not just talent.

He's staying.

After the Blue Jays chased baseball's biggest names, over and over again, they've finally gotten one to say yes. It's the same 16-year-old kid who said yes to them a decade ago, and now, the two are tied together forever.

SOURCE: MLB.com
CREDIT: Keegan Matheson