Ross Atkins trying desperately to capitalize on good vibes with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Vibes have not been notably high around the Toronto Blue Jays for much of this offseason. Some would even call them bad. Ross Atkins has done his best to try and get his franchise in the mix with every big-name free agent and even in trade talks this offseason but has come up empty. What's made this worse, though, has been the looming specter of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. leaving the Jays next offseason.

As we all know by now, Vladdy is entering the final year of club control in Toronto. Meanwhile, Atkins and the Blue Jays have tried to work on an extension with the young superstar but the most recent reports had indicated that there could've been as much as a $100 million gap between the offer and what the first baseman desires on his next contract.

But now there might be an opening as the relationship may have shifted more favorably for the Jays.

On Thursday, Guerrero and the Blue Jays were able to avoid going to an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a $28.5 million contract for the 2025 season. And if they can agree on that, perhaps they could then agree on an extension. Atkins apparently feels the same about that as well and is trying to build on any of the momentum now built with Guerrero.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB offseason.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. agreeing with Blue Jays in arbitration has Ross Atkins trying to cook

According to MLB insider Hector Gomez, Atkins and the Blue Jays are preparing a second extension offer to Vladdy. More importantly, the insider notes that the offer is expected to be "very close" to what Guerrero is looking for, which a report earlier in the week indicated could be as high as $450 million in total value.

It makes complete sense that Toronto would try to work hard to capitalize on this moment. In fact, this was always a natural progression of things for the Blue Jays and Guerrero as post-arbitration agreements is often a time when teams accelerate extension talks. That's even easier to accomplish when there has seemingly been a disconnect previously between the two sides in the offseason but they've now been able to come to terms on something.

At the same time, there were some suggestions in the wake of previous reports of the Jays not being close to Guerrero's preferred contract terms that the $450 million he desires is exclusive to Toronto and that he might accept less, albeit only slightly, to join a team he would rather be on than the Blue Jays. If that's still in consideration, there's a chance that a lot of these extension talks might ultimately be futile.

We'll ultimately have to see if the Blue Jays can get something done here but Atkins still clearly believes that he can and is using a prime moment to try and make headway. But with just over a month remaining until Guerrero's reported self-imposed deadline of the first full day of spring training for extension talks, the clock is still ticking.