Vladimir Guerrero Jr facing position change heading into shortened season

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will potentially no longer man the hot corner in Toronto

With the 2020 MLB season shortened to 60 games, there’s a great probability that a dark horse team can sneak into the postseason later this fall. One of the teams expected to make that leap are the Toronto Blue Jays, who dropped some rather big news on Friday.

According to Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo, young star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will now set his focus on playing first base and designated hitter for the upcoming campaign. That’s right, Guerrero will no longer be situating himself at third.

Position change was a long time coming for Vlad Jr.

Guerrero seemed destined to play first base in the majors, but he’s always played at the hot corner during his time in the minors. But once you look at his fielding statistics from last season, a switch was absolutely necessary.

Through 94 games, Guerrero committed 17 errors while defending third base, per Baseball Reference. That’s far from ideal in such a limited amount of pro games.

Moving Guerrero to first will help the second-year player focus on what brought him to the show in the first place: his bat. In his rookie season, Guerrero slashed .272/.339/.433 while hitting 15 home runs and 69 RBI. He’s expected to blow the numbers out of the water in 2020.

With Guerrero heading over to first, the expectation is that Travis Shaw will start at third, just like he did during his time with the Boston Red Sox. Additionally, the Blue Jays also have Brandon Drury listed as the backup at every infield position, including the hot corner.

Either way, the Blue Jays have one of the best infield crews in the league. Guerrero, Shaw, Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio? This squad is going to be a problem for the opposition for a long time.