Latest Vlad Guerrero Jr. news suggests Blue Jays star has one foot out the door

Now that Ross Atkins has whiffed on just about every free agent under the sun this winter, the Toronto Blue Jays have now pivoted to a new priority No. 1: signing star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a long-term extension before he enters his final year of team control. At this point, keeping pace with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the AL East in 2025 seems like a bit of a stretch; keeping Guerrero Jr. around for the long haul, though, will at least give the team something to build around moving forward.

Of course, getting him to forgo his free agency and sign on the dotted line is easier said than done. Atkins and Mark Shapiro haven't exactly done a ton to convince Guerrero Jr. that they can put a competitive roster around him, and after Juan Soto just shattered the MLB record books with his $765 million deal, Vladdy has to be curious what he can command as a free agent at age 26.

To Guerrero Jr.'s credit, he and his team are in talks with the Jays about a possible extension. But the latest details surrounding those talks suggest that Toronto fans shouldn't get their hopes up.

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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. extension update doesn't bode well for Blue Jays

According to an interview Guerrero Jr. gave over the weekend, he's "ready to go" on a new deal with Toronto for the right offer. But that comes with a catch: Vladdy plans on shutting down negotiations on the first full day of Spring Training.

This is bad news for Toronto for a couple of reasons. The first is obvious: Putting a hard stop date on talks, especially at the start of Spring Training rather than Opening Day, leaves less time for the Jays to reach an agreement. But the timeline also spells trouble because of what it says about how Guerrero Jr. is viewing these negotiations.

There's really only one reason why Vladdy would single out the start of Spring Training specifically as the stop date, as opposed to Opening Day. It seems clear at this point that Guerrero Jr. has one eye on an eventual trade out of Toronto, and giving the Jays a deadline of late February would still give other teams plenty of team to not only work out a deal but to help the first baseman acclimate himself to a new home ahead of the 2025 season.

If Guerrero Jr. really had optimism about reaching an agreement in Toronto, or if that was where his heart was telling him he wanted to be, why not give things as much time as possible? At this point, the writing appears to be on the wall.