I do not care about details or nuance. I am choosing to believe this means Vlad Guerrero Jr. is on the trade block and DESPERATELY wants to get out of Toronto.
TAKE OFFENSE:
HOW DARE YOU?!
Vladito, you gotta get out of there. Demand a trade from that RUDE and UNAPPRECIATIVE organization! Honor dictates it!
…
OK, in all seriousness, I actually don’t even think a debate about the definition of “generational” or the line past which you have to be or Guerrero’s performance or any of that is actually worthwhile. It’s all just fuzzy language that you can play with however you want. In that way, Shapiro wasn’t wrong to decline to call Guerrero a generational player, because it can be easily justified. Whatever.
Instead, what I think is interesting is the gamesmanship at play. Keep in mind, Guerrero is entering his final year of team control, with an arbitration estimate approaching $30 million. The Blue Jays have long desired to sign the 25-year-old stud to a long-term extension, but haven’t been able to get there yet. Perhaps this offseason will be their last chance. It thus wouldn’t exactly help their negotiating position if their president conceded that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was the kind of generational superstar who justifies a record-shattering contract extension.
… then again, imagine a world where the Blue Jays decide to shop Guerrero because they know they cannot extend him. In that world, you better believe they’d want to market him to other teams as a generational talent!
So it’s just kind of funny to think about the box in which an executive can be put. Words must be chosen carefully.
I am hopelessly biased in all this, by the way, as I pretty transparently want the Blue Jays to trade Guerrero to the Cubs. His is the kind of impact (generational?) bat the Cubs desperately need, and if you can pick him up in trade, you absolutely must pounce, and then figure out the roster fit stuff later.
Guerrero, who again is just 25 years old, is a career .288/.363/.500/137 wRC+ hitter, and hit a whopping .323/.396/.544/165 wRC+ this past season. His projections for 2025 are likely to fall roughly in the middle of those two slash lines, and that is an outstanding bat.
A reminder, by the way, that Guerrero has indicated a desire to play more third base, for what that’s worth when you start doing your mental gymnastics to assemble a trade package and fit him onto the roster: