A STAR IS BORN AS GUERRERO HITS CENTRE STAGE WITH JAYS
But phenom has shown humility during climb up baseball ranks
Early in his days of courting a player who would become the most highly regarded prospect in Blue Jays history, then-general manager Alex Anthopoulos kept coming back to one intangible that he couldn’t ignore.
Sure, Vlad Guerrero Jr. had all the tools that baseball people love to analyze, scrutinize and, if good enough, hope to capitalize on. And sure, the son of an electric-hitting hall of famer with the same name was only 15 at the time the recruiting began. But the skills were so sublime, the baseball sense so accelerated, that Anthopoulos and his scouts couldn’t see Vlad missing.
Through all the hype and all the raw skill and potential, though, the current Atlanta Braves GM saw something bigger in Guerrero than just bat speed, brawn and a famous baseball name.
“The more we kept spending time with him, there was a humility to him,” Anthopoulos told Postmedia earlier this spring. “As great as he was, and he was just a kid, you liked the fact that he was doing it for the right reasons, and it wasn’t going to be about the money and so on. We just felt good about the person and the background. I’m not surprised about the reviews you hear about him and how he has developed into not just the player he is today, but the person as well.” If there is one thing that Guerrero brings to a clubhouse and a diamond beyond that prodigious swing and ready-made social media sensation home runs that made minor league baseball history in 2018, it’s the joy with which he appears to live his life. When Jays fans pack Rogers Centre for Guerrero’s long-awaited and much-anticipated major-league debut on Friday night, there’s a good chance they’ll see that same huge smile, one that has endeared him to fans and teammates throughout his fast-track career. That exhilaration is sure to be bursting from Guerrero, who believes he was born for this moment: a chance to follow his father, his idol and a 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee.
The dreadlocks will be flowing as he gets his first look at major-league pitching beyond the occasional Grapefruit League appearance. And the way things have gone so far in his ascent to become Major League Baseball’s undisputed top-ranked prospect, few would be surprised if something he does at the plate will make Friday night a time-stamp moment, and not just for the Jays, but for all of baseball.
In his rapid move through the minor-league ranks — Dunedin, Fla., Bluefield, W.Va., Manchester, N.H. and most recently Buffalo, N.Y. — Guerrero has wowed and excelled. He exits the minor leagues with a career batting average of .331 and is poised to become the biggest homegrown superstar the Jays have ever had. Franchise history has given the team’s fan base elite level stars with plus-sized personalities, from George Bell in the 1980s, to Joe Carter in the ’90s, followed by Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson this decade. But now it’s Vlad’s time: finally and for real.
To the frustration of some, the journey has taken longer than anxious fans have hoped. There were injuries last year (knee) and this spring (strained oblique). There were concerns about his weight (250 pounds, give or take) and his ability to play defence (a third baseman, work in progress). And most of all, the Toronto front office wanted to make sure that as he exited his teenage years, Guerrero was as ready as possible for what awaits on Friday night.
The motivation from a management group massively invested in player development is mostly pure. They wanted to ensure that Vlad managed his off-the-field life as well he handled what happens between the white chalk lines. They wanted him to be a good teammate, and by all accounts, anyone who has shared a clubhouse or dugout with him has been caught up by that personality and his impish sense of humour. And yes, management wanted to manipulate his service time to maximize his potential to be the Jays’ leader for as long as possible. Chastise team president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins for that if you must, but neither man wrote the CBA currently enforced by MLB and its players’ association. Given the prize at stake — and the rarity of a massive team-developed asset like the 250-pound Guerrero package — the prudent approach makes sense.
There’s much more at play for the Jays’ front office than just one superstar graduating to the big leagues. Though Shapiro and Atkins aren’t going to phrase it so bluntly, he’s the centrepiece of the massive rebuild underway, an overhaul designed to return the Jays to relevance. With much of the major-league cupboard stripped down, it’s build around Vladdy time.
There was much about manager Charlie Montoyo that caught the attention of Toronto management as it was searching for a replacement for the fired John Gibbons, but at the top of the list was his reputation for teaching and developing young players.
That Montoyo speaks Spanish and once worked closely with Vlad Guerrero Sr. were also noted in bold on the manager’s resume and factors in the most important hire to date of the Shapiro/Atkins regime.
A coaching staff was built to help groom the young prospects and players in the system — and more than just Guerrero — but one key addition was John Schneider, who was named the team’s major-league coach this year. Schneider managed Guerrero at every level in the Jays’ minor-league system, save for the finishing school of triple-A, and has been in almost daily contact with Guerrero for more than four years now. “I’m a familiar face and I know what kind of a worker he is, what his routines are, things like that, that he’s developed in the minor leagues,” Schneider said. “I’ll be there to help him with whatever he needs, and then kind of be an ear for him and throw some insight at (third-base coach Luis Rivera) and Charlie a little bit.
“It’s good for him and it’s good for me that I have that relationship with him, to hopefully make that transition a little smoother.” As there should be with any hot prospect in any sport, the Jays expect some growing pains for Guerrero. He still has to prove he can stay healthy and play defence and the type of pitching he will soon face is a huge leap forward in degree of difficulty.
The betting is there will be enough “wow” moments to carry fans through whatever growing pains and struggles await. With 44 homers and 356 hits in his 288 career minor-league games and the exquisite pedigree, Vlad Jr. is a virtual no doubter, projected by some MLB experts as favoured to win the AL rookie of the year award.
“It’s a big moment for the Toronto Blue Jays,” Montoyo said moments after announcing the Guerrero promotion. “The No. 1 prospect in baseball is coming up. Hopefully, he becomes what everybody thinks he’s going to become.” It’s a big moment for those who came before Montoyo, Atkins and Shapiro, as well. Given the depth of his recruiting effort and eventual signing of Guerrero for a US$3.6-million bonus when he was just a 16-year-old, Anthopoulos is keen to see how the promotion plays out. So, too, is president emeritus Paul Beeston, who signed off on the Vlad pursuit and set the foundation for his development. And then there are those at all levels of the Jays organization who facilitated and nurtured the birth and then steady growth of a homegrown superstar.
The Guerrero promotion has captured the attention of all corners of professional baseball and for the first time since the 2016 post-season, Toronto will make a cameo return in the spotlight of the sport.