Guerrero could make Jays relevant again
Blue Jays’ prospect to join team Friday
Bob Nightengale: Rookie hasn’t played a game but is already face of franchise
This won’t be celebrated like Joe Carter’s game-winning World Series home run, or provide the spectacle of Jose Bautista’s bat flip, but O Canada, does this ever come close.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., baseball’s most celebrated and hyped prospect since Bryce Harper, is coming to the big leagues.
Finally.
The Blue Jays, who acted like the Grinch that stole Christmas by keeping Guerrero down in the minors much longer than a frenzied nation wanted, finally made the announcement that all of Canada wanted to hear.
Vlad Guerrero is coming! Vlad Guerrero is coming! Vlad Guerrero is coming!
“It’s a big, big moment for the Toronto Blue Jays,” manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters Wednesday after their loss to the Giants. “He’s the No. 1 prospect in baseball. Hopefully he becomes what everybody thinks he’s going to become. That’s going to be good for all of us. The city of Toronto. The Blue Jays. The organization.”
Oh, it’s not as if Guerrero is going to vault the Blue Jays into immediate contention, not for a franchise that’s just starting their rebuild. Who knows if he’ll have the career that led his father to the Hall of Fame?
But, oh, will he ever put fanvice
nies in the seats and again make this Canadian franchise relevant.
Guerrero, before he puts on his major league uniform Friday for the first time, is already the face of the Blue Jays’ franchise. No longer will its fans have to hoist signs that read: “We want Vladdy!”
He’s here.
And he’s here to stay.
It was his father, Vladimir, who made his debut with the Montreal Expos in September 1996 at 21. He needed three years of seasoning in the minors and played 16 years in the major leagues.
Guerrero’s son, his oldest of eight children, needed three years and 11 games before his anticipated arrival.
Well, to be honest, if the Blue Jays weren’t worried about sertime, money or anything else, he could have easily been up last summer. He soared through four minor league levels, hitting .381 with 20 homers and 78 RBI in 95 games, including a .994 OPS in 37 games in Class AAA.
Guerrero, the game’s premier prospect, immediately will be must-see-TV with his prodigious power. He’ll already be in the American League Rookie of the Year conversation. Who knows, maybe even in the MVP discussions. The man can flat-out hit. He has dazzled scouts with his power: 120 extra-base hits in 286 minor league games. He has impressed them with his plate discipline: striking out in just 10.9% of his plate appearances and walking 11.3% of the time. And he has jaw-dropping bat speed: hitting a ball 117 mph in the Arizona Fall League AllStar Game last year.
Guerrero Jr. is the most talented and talked-about prospect in a generation, one Canada got its first glimpse of in a spring training exhibition game in March 2018. He was playing in the same ballpark, Olympic Stadium, his dad last played in on Sept. 17, 2003. Naturally, he hit a walk-off homer against the Cardinals, drawing a curtain call from the crowd, with fans weeping with joy.
Now, after missing most of spring training with a strained side muscle and hitting three homers, including a monster opposite-field shot Wednesday, in 30 at-bats this season, he’s in Canada to stay.
The Athletics will be the first team to see him on Friday in Toronto, and wouldn’t you know it, his first road game will be Tuesday against the Angels in Anaheim, California.
Yes, the same place where his father won an MVP award and was inducted last summer into Cooperstown, wearing an Angels cap.
Those baseball gods sure have a sense of nostalgia.
“Whatever happens, I think we have to be patient,” Montoyo said, “but I honestly think he’s doing to do well. He’s comfortable. He’s not going to be nervous and scared of the big leagues.”
Not only a country, but an entire baseball world, anxiously awaits.