The Toronto Blue Jays aren’t letting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. go.
The Blue Jays struck a massive 14-year, $500 million deal with their star on Sunday night, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The deal doesn’t include any deferrals.
The deal is now the second-largest in major-league history in present value, behind only Juan Soto’s $765 million deal with the New York Mets. Shohei Ohtani struck a 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but that deal has significant deferrals.
Guerrero, 26, will now be with the Blue Jays through the end of the 2039 season. He’ll be 40 at that point, so the extension should effectively keep him in Toronto now for the rest of his MLB career.
Guerrero has been with the Blue Jays since the beginning, and he’s not wanted to leave despite the possibility of hitting free agency after the end of this season. The team signed him when he was just 16 years old out of the Dominican Republic, and he was born in Canada while his father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr., was playing with the Montreal Expos. He’s been the perfect star for the organization since he made his MLB debut in 2019.
The four-time All-Star held a .396 batting average with 30 home runs and 103 RBIs last season, though the team posted a 74-88 record and missed the playoffs. He holds a .286 batting average with four RBIs and 10 hits through nine games so far this season.
Guerrero started out this season without a contract extension in place, and the two sides went past their initial February deadline to get that done. He broke off talks with the team ahead of spring training, too, but didn’t completely shut them out. He had reportedly made it known he wanted a $500 million deal in present value.
It appears that, with this new deal now in place, the Blue Jays gave their star exactly what he was asking for. While it’s unclear what would’ve happened had he hit the open market, the team clearly didn’t want to take that chance. Now, they’ll be able to build around him for years to come.
Whether he’s the man to lead them to their first World Series title since 1993, though, remains to be seen.