Now the Blue Jays have a reason to delay Vlad Guerrero’s callup

Vladimir Guerrero is by far the most interesting prospect in baseball, but the Blue Jays have a reason to not call him up now.

All Toronto Blue Jays fans want is for Vladimir Guerrero Jr to get called up. To the Majors, mind you, not Triple-A which is what’s being reported. Whatever happens to Vlad Jr hinges on his health, which is now in question after Wednesday’s minor league outing.

Vlad came up lame after sliding into second on a pretty routine single. It wasn’t a gruesome injury, but the concern is in Guerrero signaling himself to be taken out.

Fans in Toronto have been pining for Vlad to get called up and start contributing to the future of the ballclub. There are a number of reasons the front office is keeping Vlad in the minor league oven, few of which have anything to do with actual baseball reasons.

It’s all about club control on his contract. The Chicago Cubs danced under this moon with Kris Bryant, refusing to call him up a single moment prior to when they’d have better club control deep into his contract. It’s panned out, for the most part, but we can fully expect to hear more about it as we approach the end of his rookie deal.

Ditto with the Atlanta Braves and star prospect Ronald Acuna. Vlad Jr is by far the most exciting prospect in baseball, and could very well be the future of baseball in Canada — not just Toronto. Fans in Montreal won’t rest until a team returns, but Vlad’s father being an Expos legend speaks volumes to the greater Canadian interest.

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All of this is to say, the Blue Jays were going out of their way to not call up Vlad Jr before he got hurt. Now they have an excuse to ride this thing out even futher.