Blue Jays “Missed Their Window” to Sign Guerrero Jr, “Trade Him!”—Former GM

It doesn't take a former MLB general manager to know that the Toronto Blue Jays absolutely blew their chance to sign the face of the franchise Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to an extension. But as we hear from insider & ex-GM Steve Phillips on MLB Network today, the two sides are $100 million apart in negotiations. It appears that ship has definitely sailed and it's time to trade him.

Phillips offers a seismic bounce-back plan that the Jays could enact to rock the baseball world and re-make the team and stay competitive.

.@StevePhillipsGM provides an update on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and some potential moves Toronto can make to improve their roster for the 2025 season. #MLBNHotStove pic.twitter.com/JGjwnJVmw7
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 8, 2025

"I think the Blue Jays missed their window," said Phillips. "This is a deal that needed to get done as soon as the season ended. They could have been able to get the deal done around $350 million. But once Juan Soto signed (with the NY Mets for $765M), the money's gone up. If they haven't signed him by now, they're not going to sign him."

Given that, Phillips offers the following pivot, and it's bold, to say the least:

Sign Pete Alonso for 1B
Sign Alex Bregman for 3B
Sign Anthony Santander for OF
Trade Guerrero Jr. to Seattle for young pitching

"Vladdy's got a $30M line item in the budget... Why don't you sign (free agent 1B) Pete Alonso for about $22-23M (per year); you're already in on (free agent) Bregman, sign him and sign (free agent) Santander. And then trade Guerrero Jr. to restock your farm system. Trade him to Seattle and get a young pitcher in return."

It's a pretty aggressive scenario, and it's almost impossible to see all of that coming to fruition. But you know who would have had a chance to make it happen? The Jays' former GM Alex Antholpoulos, who got aggressive with the Atlanta Braves and won them a World Series.

"Get aggressive, get creative. If you can't sign Vlad, reconstruct your team now."

The biggest problem is that so many teams have already dealt with their first base situations this offseason, so finding a team ready to trade the farm for a one-year rental of Guerrero is a difficult sell.