TORONTO — If Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got one thing across during his 10-minute media scrum at the conclusion of the Toronto Blue Jays’ annual development camp at Rogers Centre on Friday, it’s that he’s focused on “getting better.” He said it no less than a dozen times. It was the leitmotif of his answers to question after question about his major-league future, the same questions he’s answered a hundred times before, the same questions he’ll answer a hundred times again.
It sounds like lip service. And in some ways, it is. Guerrero should be a big-leaguer today; he should’ve been one months ago. But he’s not, and he won’t be one for a little while longer. And there’s little sense in griping about it so you might as well say the things your team wants to hear you say.
But there’s also substance behind it. Speak to the people who work with Guerrero every day and they’ll tell you he really, truly is trying to improve every time he puts on a uniform. He may already be baseball’s top prospect — a hitter so feared that he was walked eight times in his first six games at triple-A as the youngest player in the league. But for him, it’s not yet enough.
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Take the morning last May, when he walked into his manager’s office before a double-header and asked for someone to come out to the field with him and work on his footwork and angles at third base. Sitting in the office planning out a long day of baseball, New Hampshire Fisher Cats manager John Schneider and Blue Jays infield coordinator Danny Solano gave Guerrero a puzzled look. You know we have a double-header today, right?
It didn’t matter. Guerrero was determined to take advantage of an opportunity to better himself, even if it came prior to two full games of baseball later that day. Toronto’s development staff loves stories like that. Stories like the time Guerrero went into Schneider’s office later in the season after noticing on a defensive positioning cheat card that the Fisher Cats were no longer shifting a player they’d shifted the night before. Guerrero wanted to know why. He wanted to understand the thought process.
Stories like how diligently he worked on his English language skills while he was in A-ball during the 2017 season. Guerrero never missed his regular lessons with a retired elementary school teacher while he was playing with the Lansing Lugnuts, learning his second language through game recaps, weather forecasts, and maps of nearby ballparks. By the time he arrived in New Hampshire last season, he was texting with teammates and coaches in English and sometimes speaking up in the clubhouse when something needed to be said.
“We’ve heard very encouraging reports about his ability to influence his teammates,” says Blue Jays director of player development Gil Kim. “Vlad is well respected and well liked by his teammates. And that’s obviously a great thing to see. Vlad’s passion for the game of baseball, his love for playing, his love for competing, and the way he’s been able to handle all the outside pressures — it’s all very encouraging. And, man, he’s still only 19.”
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It’s easy to forget that. What were you doing at 19? How much pressure was on your shoulders? How closely was your every move scrutinized? How many people were saying you could be one of the best at whatever it is that you do? It’s a lot. It really is. And to this point, Guerrero’s yet to make a public misstep, on the field or off. All he’s done is make mincemeat of the pitching at every level he’s reached, while carrying himself like a hardened professional amidst great attention and expectations. You don’t always get both.
“We’ve all seen the highlights, right? It’s obvious how naturally gifted he is,” says Julian Merryweather, a recently acquired Blue Jay who watched Guerrero from afar before getting to know him this week. “But it’s cool to meet him and learn he’s just this very relaxed guy. That’s the impressive thing at his age — how mature he is.”
This is Guerrero’s second year at the Toronto development camp, and Blue Jays staff have taken particular note of how he’s helped fellow Latin players Yennsy Diaz and Hector Perez through their first experience in an unfamiliar environment. During a team-building outing at a local curling club this week, Guerrero was in the thick of everything, serving as a skip and grinning wide in the middle of a group photo taken on the ice.
“He’s just a good teammate,” says Forrest Wall, an outfielder who played with Guerrero in New Hampshire. “He’s always there for you. It’s really cool to see. He works hard, he has fun, he plays with passion. And then, of course, the results he’s had are really special.”
Wall remembers a time during batting practice when Guerrero told him he was going to hit the next three pitches he saw, in order, over the centre-field wall, the opposite-field wall, and the pull-side wall. Sure enough, Guerrero stepped into the box and crushed three homers to exactly the spots he’d predicted.
It wasn’t much harder for him when the lights came on. Guerrero finished his 2017 with a 1.073 OPS over 408 plate appearances, walking only one less time (37) than he struck out (38). He had nearly seven times more multi-hit games (41) than games in which failed to reach base (6). Some of his home runs, particularly to left-centre field, challenge the borders of his spray chart:
He’s a natural hitter. And if his minor-league performance is predictive, it’s a pretty decent bet he’ll be an awfully good one for an awfully long time. It’s been obvious that he’s ready to not only compete, but excel, in the majors for months. He’s looked like a man among boys, a big-leaguer among minor-leaguers, at every stop he’s made because that’s what he is.
And yet, the chance of Guerrero coming north with the Blue Jays at the end of spring training is next to nil. It’s, of course, no fault of his own. Blame MLB’s collectively bargained player compensation system, which is designed to delay Guerrero’s free agency by a year if his service time is slightly limited this coming season. And blame the Blue Jays front office for being shrewd and exploiting that framework as any discerning executives would.
Guerrero isn’t blaming anything. He knows he’ll be a big-leaguer before long, and that the hundreds of questions he’s had to redundantly answer over and over will soon be behind him. For their part, the Blue Jays hope that when Guerrero’s minor-league climb reaches its end, his daily pursuit of betterment will not. We’ll see. You get the sense Guerrero’s going to continue letting his actions do the talking.
“My focus is just on getting better. I’m never thinking about making it to the big leagues. It’s really just getting better every day, working on what I need to, to become a better player,” he said. “When the time comes and I’m up here, I’ll tell you how excited I am. But right now I’m just staying focused on improving and doing the best I can.”
