Toronto Blue Jays Have One of Best Franchise Building Blocks in MLB
The Toronto Blue Jays entered the 2025 MLB regular season with a lot of questions about their future.
By far the biggest was where their two homegrown stars, first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and shortstop Bo Bichette, would be playing after the campaign.
Both players were set to hit free agency, and based on their track record to this point, would be cashing in on lucrative long-term contracts.
While Bichette’s future is still up in the air, seemingly prepared to test the open market in a few months, Guerrero’s future has been determined.
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Earlier in the season, he agreed to a massive 14-year, $500 million extension, committing to the Blue Jays essentially for the length of his career.
That contract will take him through the 2039 season, when he will be 40 years old. It is the largest deal in Toronto franchise history and one of the biggest in the history of sports.
It was a no-brainer for the Blue Jays to push for this deal to get done. It has been a struggle getting big-name players to commit to them, pursuing stars in free agency, but always coming up short.
Having Guerrero locked in long-term should help improve their pitches to prospective free agents, knowing that a star is already locked in long-term that they will be able to join on the roster.
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Already a four-time All-Star and only 26 years old, there are plenty more productive seasons on the horizon for the talented slugger.
Combined with his contract, it was an easy decision for Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report to place him near the top of the franchise cornerstone rankings.
Guerrero was placed at No. 6, behind only Juan Soto of the New York Mets, Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals, Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees.
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“It's a good thing for Toronto's ranking that it got Guerrero's extension done a few months ago, because putting one of Anthony Santander, Andrés Giménez or Alejandro Kirk down as the franchise cornerstone would have probably landed the Blue Jays at No. 26 instead of No. 6. As is, they've got a darn good first baseman locked up basically for life. Let's see if he can replicate last year's feat of batting .361 and slugging .672 over his final 85 games,” Miller wrote.
The vaunted slugger hasn’t been quite as productive yet in 2025 as he has previously, but a .278/.380/.421 slash line with an OPS+ of 125, eight home runs and 12 doubles will have him in the mix for his fifth All-Star appearance.
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