Blue Jays Increase Offer To Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to $600 Million: Report

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The Toronto Blue Jays, hoping to re-sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a long-term extension before their first regular season game, have reportedly increased their offer to the star first baseman.

According to Hector Gomez of Z101 Digital, the Blue Jays' standing offer is in the range of 14-15 years and $550-600 million.

According to Buster Olney of ESPN, a gap remains between what the Blue Jays are offering and what Guerrero's camp is willing to accept.

But the fact that Guerrero is negotiating the terms of a new contract even after he imposed a February deadline offers some hope that Toronto can get a deal done.

Toronto Blue Jays Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. #27 of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrates after hitting an RBI double in the eighth inning during a game against the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre on June 29, 2024... Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Guerrero let the Blue Jays know he did not want to negotiate a long-term contract extension once the 2024-25 offseason ended. When the deadline came and went without a contract offer, Guerrero appeared destined to become a free agent at the end of the 2025 season.

"I have my numbers and they have theirs and they didn't even reach a middle point," the three-time All-Star told reporters at the time.

A career .288/.363/.500 hitter, Guerrero is coming off a season in which he hit 30 home runs and drove in 103 while cutting his strikeout rate and appearing in 159 games for Toronto.

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The Jays entered the offseason highly motivated to not let Guerrero reach free agency when he's able to solicit bids from all 30 teams — a tactic players commonly use to drive up their earning potential. By signing him to a long-term contract extension, the Jays would have an obvious franchise cornerstone to build around for years to come.

As spring training played out on the field, both Guerrero and the Blue Jays' front office took liberties explaining their side of the negotiations in public.

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"We have gone well past what our rational point of objectivity framing what the contract value is," team president and CEO Mark Shapiro told the Toronto Sun. "And that is a recognition of how important he is to our fans."

The February offer totaled about $500 million before deferrals, and about $400-450 million after deferrals, according to Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

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It's unclear whether or not Guerrero will entertain negotiations once the regular season begins. The Blue Jays play the Baltimore Orioles at noon today, their first official game of 2025.

Clearly, Guerrero has some leverage in the situation. As Olney notes, he will have already made $75 million in his career and will have a second chance to cash in as a free agent if no deal is struck.

For more MLB news, visit Newsweek Sports.

About the writer

J.P. Hoornstra writes and edits Major League Baseball content. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors. 


J.P. Hoornstra writes and edits Major League Baseball content. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers ... Read more