Blue Jays Reportedly Prepping Massive $600M Offer For Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The Toronto Blue Jays haven’t given up on signing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a contract extension. The two sides failed to reach a deal before spring training, an impasse that initially made it seem like Guerrero would be traded or hit free agency. However, a new update from MLB insider Hector Gomez indicates the Blue Jays still could lock up their franchise slugger.

“Source: The Blue Jays are planning to make a new offer to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., which will be close to what he is looking for,” Gomez wrote Monday on the X platform. “According to the source, the Jays’ offer would be in the range of 14-15 years and $550-600 million.” If Gomez’s report is true, Toronto might have a good shot at persuading Guerrero to stick around. Guerrero recently told ESPN that he asked for a contract worth less than $600 million over fewer than 14 years. A subsequent report claimed Guerrero set an asking price of roughly $500 million. So, a 14-year, $600 million from the Blue Jays might be enough, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Guerrero, 26, established himself as one of baseball’s best hitters over the last six seasons. He owns a career batting average of .288 along with 160 homers and 507 RBIs.

Blue Jays Select Richard Lovelady

The Blue Jays announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Richard Lovelady. Right-hander Alek Manoah, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, has been transferred to the 60-day injured list as a corresponding move. Hazel Mae of Sportsnet announced the moves prior to the official announcement.

Lovelady, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Jays in January. He made his seventh appearance today, allowing one earned run, pushing his earned run average to 5.14. That’s obviously not an incredibly impressive number but the southpaw does have eight strikeouts in seven innings.

Prior to joining the Jays, Lovelady’s track record has been that of a groundballer. He has 99 1/3 innings in the big leagues, spending time with the Royals, Athletics, Cubs and Rays. In that time, his 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate were close to league average, but with a strong 50.9% ground ball rate. With the Jays this spring, he came into today with a grounder rate of just 35.7%. Today’s outing went walk, ground ball double play, homer, ground ball single, walk, ground out.

For the Jays, Opening Day is still over a week away. Adding Lovelady to the roster now seems to suggest that he had some sort of opt-out in his deal and the Jays didn’t want him to get away. Left-handed relief is one of the bigger question marks on the Toronto roster. The Jays also have Brendon Little, Josh Walker and Easton Lucas on the 40-man but they all have options and each has less than 50 innings of major league experience.

Lovelady himself is out of options, but it seems he is not guaranteed a spot. Mae relays word from manager John Schneider that Lovelady is still trying to earn a spot on the active roster, even though he’s now on the 40-man. Although the Jays have added Lovelady now to prevent him from opting out, they may still decide to designate him for assignment when their season starts next week. If he ends up on waivers, perhaps some other club will be enticed and put in a claim.

If he were to clear waivers, what would happen next could depend on what salary figures are in his minor league deal. Lovelady has at least three years of service time, which gives him the right to reject an outright assignment. But since he has less than five years of service, electing free agency means walking away from whatever money he is still owed on his deal. The salary figures on his pact haven’t been publicly reported.

That means there’s a possible sequence of events where the Jays select his contract today and then pass him through waivers next week, with Lovelady then deciding to stick around in order to keep the money from this deal flowing. But it’s also possible that he cracks the Opening Day roster, or winds up bouncing to another club.