1:04pm: Guerrero will receive a $3.9MM bonus, Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com tweets.
10:18am: The Blue Jays have reached agreement with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ben Badler of Baseball America reports on Twitter. Guerrero, son of the famed big leaguer of the same name, was the first overall international prospect on BA’s pre-July 2 board. He is represented by Beverly Hills Sports Council and Rick Thurman, Rafael Nieves and Nelson Montes.
Toronto had been widely expected to land the highly-touted Guerrero, who bears a striking resemblance to his father. While he doesn’t quite reach Vlad Sr.’s “all-around tools,” in Badler’s estimation, that’s hardly a knock. The younger Guerrero is said to have a very promising bat with contact ability to go with good power potential.
On the other hand, Guerrero is not a strong runner and does not appear to possess his father’s cannon of an arm. Those current limitations, including at least some question of whether he’ll ultimately be a serviceable corner outfielder, led both Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs and MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez to rate Guerrero fourth among eligible July 2 prospects.
The Blue Jays entered the day with $2,324,100 to spend without incurring any penalties, per Baseball America, and it appears likely that the club will go well beyond that to get Guerrero. While his bonus has yet to be reported, McDaniel predicted that Guerrero would sign for $3.45MM.
My opinion, but I think Vladimir Guerrero Sr. was forced out of baseball way too soon. He could have been a valuable asset as a DH for a club or two.
Ugh…… tough day when players you watched growing up… have kids signing.
what’s tough about it?
Agreed or rookies you watched while in college having kids that are signing..
I wouldn’t say he was forced out. He signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays, was promoted to Triple-A right away and then he was the one who asked for a release. The Jays had RF and CF pretty much locked up with Edwin and Lind as DH/1b. LF was mostly Davis with 4 prospects (at least considered prospects at the time) rotating the position.
There wasn’t much room for him at the MLB level for the jays and his defensive abilities due to age preventing him from the NL.
There are more teams in the AL than the Jays.. I am sure his numbers would have been better than Luke Scott or Travis Hafner.. You could also throw Jesus Montero (if he wasn’t a highly touted prospect) or Michael Young (if he wasn’t a Rangers icon) into the mix as well..
I read earlier that Sr. states Jr.. Has more power in his swing then he ever did and throws just as well as him.
i believe that had to do more with Sr being kind…
Jr. Is already Prince Fielder size…so he’s probably a 1B only player….and his swing is slow
Professional scouts felt he’s worth 3.9 million. Hard to see how your points are in any way valid
They are valid because he is literally Prince Fielder size now and does not have a future fielding position beside 1B. His swing IS long…. Go watch the available video. 4m on the international market isn’t all that much I suppose… But we wouldn’t be talking about him if he wasn’t Vlad Jr. I do believe many people who haven’t actually seen him are picturing another Vlad….and he’s not that with any assessment… He’s Prince Fielder if he develops.
I’ll correct myself and say he’s lost weight…but he’s not a sure thing… And I don’t think he profiles like his Dad. He’s a 5-7th round draft pick if he’s in America
always felt a bit bad for Vlad’s career. i remember visiting Montreal in the 90s and thought to stop by the stadium. scalpers were selling decent tix for 1/10 value so it was a no-brainer to get in. he played great but that team had zero support from fans…
Montreal had as much love at the time for Jeffrey Loria as Miami does now..
I got caught up in the Montreal issue professionally…it was a mess. That team was incredibly well run, but after the strike the organization was cash poor and running on bare essentials in their system.
The kid wears batting gloves. *gasps*
“Striking resemblance”….not getting it. I am curious as to why comps of players are made…we generally stick to racial/nationality descriptions…. Example: Buxton is the next Eric Davis…. Trout had a crew cut and multi tools…he’s Mantle.
I think Vlad Jr. is Bob Hamelin
OK, so the issue has probably been lackadaisical sports reporting that too often tried to label the Braves young toolsy black draft picks as.”naturals”…and would also label the short white middle infielders as “gamers” or “gritty”