TORONTO – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fielded a Cedric Mullins chopper, signalled stop as he stepped into the baseline and then wrapped the Tampa Bay Rays centre-fielder in a bear hug while applying a tag for the fifth inning’s final out.
On the surface, it was a light moment of levity sure to loop regularly on an algorithm near you. Beneath it, though, the brief exchange was far more than that.
“I was talking with George (Springer) the other day, sometimes we put too many pressures on ourselves, we want to do everything,” the superstar first baseman said in the dugout Monday before an 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. “He told me, ‘Just go out there and be yourself, laughing, joking.’ Sometimes you put more pressure and then sometimes you change your body language and you don’t (realize it). So to me he always says go out there and have fun.”
That’s what Guerrero was doing in that fifth inning, even in the midst of another tough night, amid a tough stretch personally, within a tough opening to the season for the Blue Jays. At the unofficial quarter-point of 2026, they’re 18-23, and Guerrero is batting .300/.386/.387 with only two homers and 17 RBIs after an 0-for-4 evening.
On the team front, Guerrero projected a sense of calm, saying, “we're good, we're just fine,” pointing to the injuries that have marked the season so far — Addison Barger returned to the injured list Monday after he received a cortisone shot in his inflamed right elbow, the club’s 14th IL stint — and the parallels to last year.
“I remember we were similar to this,” he said of the team’s 20-21 mark at this point last May. “We took it one day at a time and we finished in the World Series. So for us, it's one day at a time and try to believe in each other and try to have fun and try to win some games.”
Fair enough, but that doesn’t mean Guerrero isn’t feeling it.
He’s now 6-for-41 over his last 11 games. He hasn’t had an extra-base hit since a double April 28. His last homer came April 20, and shortstop Andres Gimenez, who hit his fourth and fifth homers Monday in his first career multi-homer game, has gone deep more than twice as much.
With Barger out again — he’s down 3-4 days after the shot, but has a chance at a minimal IL stint — while the lineup remains without Alejandro Kirk (who began hitting off a tee) and Nathan Lukes (who is due to start running later this week ahead of rehab games this weekend), the Blue Jays really need Guerrero to help fill the void.
“Sometimes I feel a little bit rushed, sometimes I want to do too much,” Guerrero said, and all the injuries make it harder for him to not try and force the issue. “It is (harder), because every time you look at your teammates and … everybody looks at me right here and you want to be that guy. You want to be the guy who goes out there and tries to help the team win. That's why sometimes you put pressure on yourself instead of relaxing and having fun out there.”
Guerrero said he usually feels this way at the start of a season, “trying to do too much instead of playing normal and playing my game. I'm still learning from everybody, trying to calm myself down and try to get better for the team.”
To that end, he’s trying to get back to being himself, leaning on the words of Springer, whom he calls “my advice guy.” He’s not worried about the lack of slug to this point, trusting the power will come, because it always has in the past.
“I've been there and I've finished with 20, 25, 30 (homers),” said Guerrero. “When they come, (there's) a ton. ... I just need one ball, hit it hard and go out and then the rest will come.”
That doesn’t make the wait any easier, especially as the Blue Jays continue to spin their wheels. A telling moment came during the eighth inning of Sunday’s 6-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, when Guerrero came up with the bases loaded and two out, hooked a chase slider weakly to third to end the inning, and tried to break his bat over his leg in frustration.
“That at-bat, if I do good, we probably change the game,” he said. “When I missed, I just felt like I let my team down. Sometimes you get mad. I tried to break it out there and when I got here (in the dugout), I talked with (Springer) and he told me everything is going to be all right. Sometimes you don't want to miss and you miss. This is baseball.”
Indeed, and right now baseball is a grind, for both Guerrero and the Blue Jays.
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