Guerrero Jr.’s fitness level work in progress

Remember back in the spring when “load management” was a hot topic in Toronto sports and Vlad Guerrero Jr. found himself in his own version of it?

First, there was the adjusted fighting weight of the rookie, as the team changed the reported number from 200 pounds to a more realistic 250.

Eyebrows were raised. Then Vlad Jr. ripped an oblique muscle with one of his mighty swings early in Grapefruit League play, an injury that would ultimately delay the start of his rookie major league campaign

Of course, that led to all sorts of hot takes about Guerrero’s conditioning, his ability to play a full season and naturally to questions about how the Blue Jays were going to handle it all.

It got silly, as these things do. But given that the team crafted clearly defined goals of helping a still developing body prepare, adapt and perform through the grind of a first taste of the big leagues, it has gone extremely well for the 20-year-old.

It’s still a work in progress — as it would be for any young player — but Guerrero is playing his best baseball late in the season, he hasn’t been injured and as he told us this past weekend, is driven for a strong finish through the final seven weeks of the schedule.

And in the Jays front office, the emphasis is to continue to maximize his performance and skills, both in the present and future. The next step will be to devise a plan for the off-season to mix rest and recovery with continued development and improved fitness.

“There’s a plan Vlad is

working on today and that factors in playing time as well as the baseball goals he’s working on,” Jays assistant general manager Joe Sheehan said on Thursday as the players enjoyed its first off day of August. “There’s going to be a plan that he will continue to work on after Sept. 30.

“In the off-season, we don’t have to account for fatigue from playing so the plan adjusts accordingly. Vlad is involved in developing and implementing that plan.”

The latter two points are important ones.

Bluntly, would the Jays prefer that Guerrero was in better shape? Sure. But it is a delicate topic and a balance as the strapping son of a Hall of Famer puts the work in to become more skilled while also staying healthy.

He’s doing all that at his sport’s highest level while also shouldering the heaviest workload of his career. A typical work day for Guerrero and most of his young contemporaries includes infield drills and plenty of time in the batting cage. All that followed by a game at night.

With that volume, the Jays have rightfully been careful not to overdo it with any of their players and have closely monitored so many aspects of their work.

Given the sensitive nature of fitness in general and allowing for some needed down time, the Jays want to make sure that Guerrero has some say in how he proceeds.

As Sheehan notes, fatigue is a potential factor. So far in 2019 Guerrero has had 397 at-bats (342 with the Jays and 45 in the minors). With 38 games remaining, Vlad Jr. should easily surpass the 437 at-bats he had at Class-A Lansing and Class-A Dunedin in 2017 as the most in his pro career.