The Toronto Blue Jays may not reach a contract extension with their superstar first baseman, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Guerrero’s contract expires at the end of the 2025 season and the young slugger just watched Juan Soto land a deal worth nearly $800 million.
It’s unlikely Guerrero will sign an extension with the market being set so incredibly high by Soto. If the superstar slugger doesn’t want to sign an extension with the Blue Jays, Toronto may explore the possibility of trading him.
Christopher Kline of FanSided recently put together a list of the top five suitors for the Blue Jays’ first baseman. Surprisingly, Kline favored the New York Yankees, listing them second.
“This would be the funniest outcome, if only because Guerrero once said he wanted to ‘kill’ the Yankees and would never play for the Bronx Bombers, citing a family beef,” Kline wrote. “That was a little more than a year ago, so not exactly ancient history. That said, Guerrero — perhaps in anticipation of this exact sequence of events — has since changed his tune.
“The Yankees are desperate to replace Soto’s bat and stockpile star power around Judge. Guerrero, like Soto, is extremely young and extremely accomplished at the same time. He’s quite literally the next-best option.”
While the Yankees would love to land Guerrero, there’s no feasible way a trade would ever come to fruition.
For one, the Blue Jays wouldn’t be willing to deal their young superstar to a hated rival like New York. Even if they were willing to send Guerrero to the Yankees, New York doesn’t have the prospect capital to make a deal happen.
This just isn’t a realistic option no matter how much the Yankees would love for it to happen. New York could sign him in free agency next winter, but it won’t land him sooner than that.