Insider Ken Rosenthal Predicts Blue Jays’ Vlad Guerrero “Will Be Gone”

The Toronto Blue Jays are supposedly one of the five finalists in the Juan Soto Sweepstakes. But would the superstar outfielder really be interested in heading north of the border if the team's top star, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. isn't around?

According to well-connected baseball insider Ken Rosenthal, Vladdy's days in Toronto are numbered, as he's set to enter his final year of team control. As Rosenthal wrote in The Athletic on Thursday:

For six months now, I’ve found the Toronto Blue Jays baffling. They sold at the trade deadline, but held the pieces that could have brought the most in return, first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and shortstop Bo Bichette...

Guerrero is an anchor to build around. And the best guess is that he will be gone.

Will that be via a trade this offseason? Or letting him walk in free agency after the 2025 campaign?

Rosenthal cites the Jays' apparent belief in their group of young position players to take them into the future as the reasoning behind all this, even without Guerrero and Bichette around. Players like Will Wagner, Joey Loperfido and Jonatan Clase, all of whom were acquired at the trade deadline, plus incumbents Davis Schneider and Spencer Horwitz, and prospects Leo Jiménez and Orelvis Martinez.

But as Rosenthal asserts, "the strategy...seems odd, not to mention risky."

Given the way that GM Ross Atkins has bungled the managing of this team over the last nine years, none of this should be a surprise to followers of the team.

Guerrero Jr. has been the face of the franchise for six years, with four All-Star berths, and a couple of Top 6 MVP finishes. But if Rosenthal is correct, his days in Toronto are numbered.