BREAKING: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Won’t Sign Extension With Blue Jays

6 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

We'll probably find out more in the coming weeks, as one of these sides is going to be motivated to leak numbers to win public perception.

Either way, I consider this a pretty big fail on Atkins' part. You find a way to keep your stars, you just get it done.

There's a point where that simply isn't the right call anymore.  

8 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Like I said, I think we'll get numbers sooner or later. And when the dust settles, I suspect Vlad's numbers today are lower than he gets in free agency. Maybe not by much, but I doubt he's asking for $600m. He and his agent know he's a first baseman and not very good at the position. What's the point of asking for so much that you'll never get it?

Because this isn't the deadline to get "that number".  Vlad can ask for the moon all he wants in hopes that someone is stupid enough to give it to him.  The only time he has to "settle" for less than the moon would be about this time next year, when he may need to compromise if nobody will pay up.

The criticism is probably that the FO didn't pull the plug on extending Vlad sooner and didn't pull the trigger to trade him at the start of the offseason.  That will certainly be the narrative if we don't make the playoffs this year.

I suspect the FO thought there would be more mutual interest in compromising and finding a number they could both accept (which doesn't appear to be true) and/or they simple were committed to trying to win this year, which may have been a influenced by Rogers (win to keep your job boys).

Well the true deadline isn't until his contract expires and before he signs elsewhere. Nothing wrong with him trying to get all he can and perhaps all this talk about wanting to stay a Blue Jay for life is just posturing.   If his asking price is a contract that begins with the number 5 (and  I suspect it does) then we all know what the prudent course of action should be:  Trade him while you can.

Yeah, the usual suspects will blame this on Jays management not being able to close a deal with their franchise player but at some point common sense has to prevail, right?

I've always been in the sign Vladdy camp but looking at the situation from a purely analytical perspective, in a few short years he will be on the wrong side of 30, do you really want to empty your pocket book for what could be Prince Fielder 2.0 at that point?  

This is why keeping a lame duck front office was a bad idea. They have zero reason to care about anything other than 2025, so trading Vlad and hurting the 2025 team (even if it helps the 2026-beyond teams) wouldn’t be in their best interest. The only other option then would be an extension but they are extremely committed to their own internal valuations/plan, and Vlad has no reason to compromise when every big market team will be after him this winter, so there was very little chance this was ever going to lead to an extension.

It’s strange that if both Vlad and Bo are still on the team by the end of 2025, then I actually think Bo is more likely to come back. I don’t see a clear market for him as a shortstop. 

Who could've predicted this? Shatkins too afraid to make the tough call and trade him to maximize his value.  Now he's just a rental.

32 minutes ago, BTS said:

The biggest failure here isn’t not signing him - it’s going into the season with him unsigned. If Houston can trade Tucker and SD can trade Soto they could have traded Vlad, but they won’t because Atkins is too passive for the job. 

Exactly... this is 100% the issue. 

I said from the start, that you need to figure out the Vlad situation at the beginning of free agency before teams fill up their 1B spots and have more money to throw around.  This would also allow the Jays to pivot and spend accordingly in free agency.  

Now any bidding war would include far less teams and know the Jays are in a position of complete desperation.  This front office is full of f***ing idiots and only the same people here will defend them while 95% of the fan base want these idiots gone. 

2 hours ago, John_Havok said:

Lots of contradiction in Vlad's statements. 

They weren't close on numbers....I know my value.... they had their numbers, I had mine...

Money isn't the only priority ... winning is the goal....I will do everything I can to stay here...

So yeah, Vlad asking for far too much money seemingly confirmed. I doubt the number is 450/10 either as that's a number that's not so egregious it couldn't be rationalized. 

 

Yeah he doesn’t even seem like he’s negotiating anything. He’s sticking to his number and thats it.

fine, that’s what the open market is for. See if there’s a team willing to give you your ridiculous demands.

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Like I said, I think we'll get numbers sooner or later. And when the dust settles, I suspect Vlad's numbers today are lower than he gets in free agency. Maybe not by much, but I doubt he's asking for $600m. He and his agent know he's a first baseman and not very good at the position. What's the point of asking for so much that you'll never get it?

It entirely depends on whether he has a good season or a bad season this year. And that’s part of the reason the front office doesn’t agree on his value, because he’s been so inconsistent