VLAD GUERRERO JR. THE SUPERSTAR

By midsummer, Vlad Guerrero Jr. was hitting .433 through 46 games and was the talk of the baseball world. The third-ranked prospect in all of baseball at the time, trailing only Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna — who each had already been promoted to the big leagues by the Los Angeles Angels and Atlanta Braves, respectively — was must-watch with his every move.

“I remember I would never miss a Vladdy swing,” says Romano, the Canadian closer from Markham, Ont. “You had to be engaged because there was always the possibility that he was going to do something you'd never seen before.

“Honestly? I'd describe it as it was like he was playing slopitch or softball. I'm not joking. He was hitting over .400 and whenever he did get out it felt like it was a 110-mile-an-hour line drive to someone. It was just absolutely incredible.”

As the season went along, the Vladdy viral moments stacked up.

There was the night Guerrero belted a home run off the Hilton Hotel in centre field at Delta Dental Stadium. There was the time he used a 40-ounce bat just to challenge himself, or when a television crew caught him hitting home runs off a tee, a precursor to his starring role in future MLB Home Run Derbies.

“He was doing things at the time that were otherworldly,” Schneider said. “It was kind of like what we saw in 2021 (when Guerrero led the majors with 48 homers). The day he used that 40-ounce bat? He did it just to challenge himself. That's how good he felt he was at that time.”

With big talent comes the potential of big personality, and the Jays paid attention to managing that side of the Guerrero experience.

“By 2018, Vlad and Bo were on the cover of Baseball America and they were top 15 prospects by every account, so we were learning what it would be like to be constantly followed,” Kim said. “With Vlad getting off to that hot start and hitting .400, it was about being able to control each day so he could continue to focus on getting better, rather than be worried about when he was going to get called up to Triple-a or when he was going to get called up to the big leagues. He did a great job of learning how to work and how to get better.”

Added Schneider: “What I remember is Vlad always had a smile on his face and was working his ass off.”

They may have been kids, but they couldn't allow themselves to peer too deep into the future or risk compromising the immediate phase of their development. They were driven young athletes who, as a group, were well aware of their potential.

“That was the goal for the whole group, to get to the big leagues,” Guerrero said through team interpreter Hector Lebron. “Our mentality was if we can do it here in New Hampshire, we can do it in the big leagues. Now that we are here, we have continued that belief. When you get used to winning, you develop that winning mentality and that helps you bring it to the big leagues ... everything starts there.”

For Guerrero, the success, temporarily derailed by a minor knee injury, was so prolific the Jays brass could no longer keep the shackles on. They promoted him to Buffalo at the end of July. At season's end, he was named Baseball America's minor league player of the year for his work in two stops in the Jays chain. And being in his presence was to be in awe.

“Vladdy doing what he was doing at that time was something that was unbelievable, and we all realized how special he was,” Bichette said. “I mean, we already knew it, but seeing what he was doing was crazy. The numbers were the numbers, but just the consistency of the at-bats — it seemed like the better the pitcher he faced, the better he got. You realized that you were playing with someone who was going to be pretty great.”