The Toronto Blue Jays have announced that they are calling up their young phenom Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the big league club for Friday’s game against the Oakland Athletics. News broke earlier on Wednesday that the move would be made bringing Guerrero Jr. to the big league club, almost a month after the 2019 regular season has begun. This move by the Jays is a manipulation of service time to prolong Guerrero Jr.’s team control with the Blue Jays for an extra year.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is headed to the Major Leagues. Manager Charlie Montoyo just made the announcement. Guerrero will be at Rogers Centre Friday night vs. Oakland. The long wait is finally over. Time for the big league debut. #BlueJays
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) April 24, 2019
Guerrero Jr. has spent the beginning of 2019 with the Buffalo Bisons (Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate) where in seven games he has a .360/.429/.640 slash with two homers and seven RBI’s. Guerrero has definitely proved himself to be talented which has left a lot of Blue Jays in awe of the potential that they have coming.
The day has finally come for Blue Jays fans, Guerrero Jr. opens the door for the other rookies like Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio to get to the Blue Jays and get a chance to prove themselves at the big league level. Guerrero Jr. is the number one prospect in baseball coming into 2019 alongside the likes of Fernando Tatis Jr. who has spent his 2019 regular season with the San Diego Padres.
My son! The country that saw you as a child will now see you turn into a big one.
Working hard everything can be done. I’m proud of you!
Love you! ?? pic.twitter.com/WJyLBVKWoR
— Vladimir Guerrero (@VladGuerrero27) April 25, 2019
Like father, like son, Guerrero Sr. tweeted out a picture talking about his excitement to hear that his kid was going to be called up and get his shot to perform in the big leagues for the Blue Jays. Guerrero was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2018. During his youth, Guerrero Sr. also was sheltered in the minor leagues and for those doubting that Guerrero Jr.’s stats are impressive, refer to the tweet below to see that this is simply untrue.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. now has exactly the same number of at-bats his dad had before his MLB debut. Through 1,055 AB's,
Vlad Sr: .343 AVG, 45 HR, 184 RBI, 95 BB, 115 K in 285 G
Vlad Jr: .332 AVG, 42 HR, 206 RBI, 149 BB, 137 K in 283 G— Kelsie Heneghan (@Kelsie_Heneghan) April 15, 2019
Besides the simple fact that this kid is going to be good, there is a lot of hype for this particular call-up. The Blue Jays are a team that is in a really tough division, obviously, they are not competing for a top spot, but Guerrero Jr. being in the big leagues will allow them to get back into competition in the near future if the right moves are made by the front office. Now it is time for Guerrero Jr. to take over the Blue Jays and start producing immensely for the Blue Jays offense.
The thing about this call-up that is unique, besides all the hype is that Guerrero Jr. was held in the minors to manipulate team control over him. Since he was kept in the minors, the Blue Jays will be able to keep Guerrero Jr. under Blue Jays control for another year. They will have him under team control for the next six years because of this move to keep him in the minors. This decision has caused a lot of issues with the MLBPA who is extremely disappointed with teams who are doing this with their young talent.
There was a lot of speculation that teams like the Padres were going to do this with Tatis Jr. or the New York Mets with Pete Alonso, and thankfully they did not. Holding a player out of the big leagues when they are more than capable is an issue and needs to be stopped, now that Guerrero Jr. is finally called up, the league needs to address this situation.
