It’s time for the Blue Jays to call up Vladimir Guerrero Jr
By Matt O'Leary
The Blue Jays have a polarizing prospect in Vladimir Guerrero Jr dominating in AA. It’s time that he gets the call-up to the big club.
The American League East is a two dog race. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are running away with it leaving teams like the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rays in the dust. The Rays are somehow .500 but expect that drop off eventually.
The point here is outside the top-two teams the AL East is a snoozefest. That can all change if the Blue Jays call-up the most polarizing prospect in all of baseball.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr, yes the son of the Hall of Famer Vlad Guerrero, has been putting a beat down on Minor League pitchers. The 19-year-old is absolutely raking at the AA level through 46 games with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
in 46 games, Guerrero Jr is slashing .433/.481/.713 with 10 home runs and 50 runs batted in. It’s not even fair at this point. It’s like Guerrero is a man amongst boys, but he’s not, he’s still a teenager which is the crazy part.
He’s leading AA in batting average, RBI’s and OPS as well. That’s another thing we forgot to mention, his OPS is 1.194 which is just ridiculous.
The Jays are reluctant to call him up due to his age but they shouldn’t be. Clearly, he’s got some talent and his swing is eerily close to his father’s cut. If the Blue Jays were smart they’d get him on the next plane up to Toronto and put him in the lineup.
With a sub-.500 record and very little excitement around the team why not give your best prospect a chance to shine. As a team, the Jays are hitting .229 which of course, is nothing to write home about.
Call him up and plug him right in at third base. Right now, the Jays have Yangervis Solarte playing third with Josh Donaldson on the shelf. You can then move Solarte to second replacing Devon Travis.
When Donaldson is back healthy have him DH and try and get rid of the 35-year-old Kendrys Morales. It’s really a good problem to have, and with the Jays so far out of it, there’s no reason to play aging veterans over a young player you hope is around for the next decade.
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Let’s be honest for a second the Toronto Blue Jays are doing a disservice to the rest of baseball keeping Vlad Guerrero’s talent in AA. Call him up and let him mash home runs in the upper tank at Rogers Center just like he was destined to do.