The best thing that could happen at this point is not signing him, then if/when the team doesn’t resemble a contender in July, the optics of trading Vlad will be fine. Just give it time. The Jays caving now and giving him 14 f’n years will be a disaster, and the frustrating part is Shapiro knows this but it’s probably out of his hands. That’s not to absolve him of blame, because if he was better at player development, then we wouldn’t be in this position.

I can't wait for negative WAR Vlad getting 600 plate appearances a season for 8 years from ages 33-40 as he tries to accumulate enough counting stats for the HOF. At least the best remaining years of Vlad's career will be spent on the 2026-30 Jays, who if we're lucky will only be rebuilding for most of the years instead of all of them. Fun times ahead.

14-year, $500M extension, no deferrals

well one way to look at it is.......he got a $7M raise lol

The good news is farm systems can turn around in a hurry.