Sources: Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays agree on $500 million deal - ESPN
First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays are in agreement on a 14-year, $500 million contract extension, pending a physical, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Sunday night.
This is a monumental, no-deferral deal to keep the homegrown star in Toronto for the rest of his career, and comes as the 5-5 Blue Jays are in the midst of a road trip that takes them to Fenway Park to meet the Boston Red Sox on Monday.
Guerrero, 26, a four-time All-Star and son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, had said he would not negotiate during the season after the sides failed to come to an agreement before he reported to spring training. But the sides continued talking and sealed a deal that is the third largest in Major League Baseball history, behind only Juan Soto's 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani's 10-year, $700 million pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Blue Jays, snakebit in recent years by Soto and Ohtani signing elsewhere, received a long-term commitment from their best homegrown talent since Hall of Famer Roy Halladay.
They had tried to sign Guerrero to a long-term deal for years to no avail. Toronto got a glimpse of Guerrero's talent when he debuted shortly after his 20th birthday in 2019 and homered 15 times as a rookie. Guerrero's breakout season came in 2021, when he finished second to Ohtani in American League MVP voting after hitting .311/.401/.601 with 48 home runs and 111 RBIs.
Guerrero followed with a pair of solid-but-below-expectations seasons in 2022 and 2023, and in mid-May 2024, he sported an OPS under .750 as the Blue Jays struggled en route to an eventual last-place finish. Over his last 116 games in 2024, the Guerrero of 2021 reemerged, as he hit