TORONTO – This current bout of back tightness for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. feels similar to the one that locked him a couple of weeks ago, although this time it’s a little bit higher up.
“More toward the obliques right now,” the Toronto Blue Jays first baseman said Wednesday. “But I feel way better than yesterday.”
On Tuesday, Guerrero missed his fifth game of the year, one short of his single-season career high and almost a third of the way to his cumulative total of 18 from 2020 through 2025. A couple of weeks ago, he wasn’t sure what led his back to tighten, but the cause this time was clear – the heavy slate of extra work aimed at getting him right at the plate.
He’s been doing “a lot, like 300 swings a day before games, after games, probably like 100,” Guerrero said. “I have to get better and sitting here (in the clubhouse), I’m not going to get better. I have to take a lot of swings to get better. It’s part of the game.”
Some dividends from all those rips began to show, as he ended an 0-for-12 skid with a single and lined out to left field at 107.1 m.p.h. in Monday’s 2-1 win over the New York Mets, while he ripped a first-inning double that helped plate the game’s opening run and later walked and scored in a 9-3 Canada Day romp, ending a maddening 3-7 homestand.
The Blue Jays (41-46) seized control of the contest in the third on Ernie Clement’s RBI double and a three-run shot from Sean Keys that was his first home run in the majors, while Daulton Varsho’s RBI single and Myles Straw’s three-run drive in the seventh turned it into a laugher.
On the first bullpen day since Patrick Corbin was demoted to the bullpen, the outburst was timely, even as opener Braydon Fisher with a clean first, Spencer Miles (three shutout frames while topping out at 99.4 m.p.h., a new personal best) and Corbin (five innings, three runs) navigated a low-stress day before a crowd of 41,842.
The nine runs were the most the Blue Jays have scored since putting up 14 against the Angels on May 9, and the highlights all around made for a fitting Canada Day celebration.
“I loved it, it was incredible,” Keys, who struck out on a curveball in his first at-bat and hunted a fastball he got after being started off with another curve in his second trip up, said of the festivities. “Had chills before the game. Seeing everyone up on the CN Tower, the flag, the crowd was so loud singing the anthem, it was awesome.”
Added Miles: “It was just epic. A bunch of emotions, a bunch of energy and channelled it in the right way.”
Welcome as all of the above was, Guerrero’s progress remains the most impactful variable in this uneven Blue Jays season, a driver of his work in recent weeks.
While he joked that he’s “trying to find (a way) to hit the ball at nobody,” better stacking his weight on his back leg, leading to a more forceful stride rather than a softer swing forward with his front leg has been a focal point. He’s been doing that off both 100 m.p.h. fastballs and curveballs from the iPitch machine, “trying to put my swing in the perfect situation to go out there and do my job.”
Guerrero is cognizant that he’s not there yet.
“I'm going to learn a lot of this season, in a good way,” he said. “I’m a person that doesn't care how I'm going, I just go out there and try to help the team doing whatever I can to win, you know? I never make excuses. If I'm not doing my job, I know I'm not doing my job. But I believe in God. I believe in me. I know one day it's going to click my way and I hope it's going to be soon.”
To that end, he’s going to keep on swinging, managing through the toll on his body.
The deep run to the World Series last year changed his off-season, he said, as he typically starts training at the beginning of November, which is only when the Blue Jays’ 2025 finished. As such, he spent the month recovering and didn’t get going for 2026 until early December, which has made this season “a little bit harder, but it's nothing to complain about, it's not an excuse. But that's one of the things my body feels.”
Another is that his swing feels “perfect” in the cage, but during games, “it's different.”
Why?
“I don't know, I have no idea,” he said, shaking his head. “Mechanically, I feel good. I have no idea what happens, but I know I'm going to figure it out. And, when I figure it out, something good will come.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider shares that faith and was heartened by the way fans chanted “Vladdy, Vladdy,” during his at-bat in the eighth inning, when he ended up grounding out to third. Schneider said it was reminiscent of the way Phillies fans cheered for a slumping Trea Turner in 2023.
“He's making progress and I think that he'll be fine eventually. It takes a couple of games, it takes a stretch,” said Schneider. “But cool to hear the fans, especially on Canada Day, still being loud there in the eighth inning and supporting our guy.”
Amid those good vibes, one element Guerrero keeps coming back to is that “instead of letting the pitcher come to me, I just want to hit the ball before they throw it,” he said. “I think, as of now, I've been taking better at-bats and I know something big is coming.”
The sooner the better for a Blue Jays team working to take off alongside its key slugger.
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