Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has dropped half a billion dollars * from the Blue Jays de Toronto. You can probably guess what this asterisk means at this stage.
According to Ken Rosenthal of athleticsGuerrero has rejected an extension offer of more than $ 500 million from Blue Jays, but with enough delayed money to reduce the current value to $ 400 million and $ 450 million. Guerrero would have reported that he was willing to accept postpones, but only if the value of the contract was still $ 500 million.
Such a contract would probably have seen Guerrero exceeding the total money of Shohei OhtaniA revolutionary contract of $ 700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was calculated for a value of approximately $ 460 million in current money from its signature.
However, it would have been short The incredible $ 765 million agreement from Juan Soto, $ 765 millionwhich does not contain delayed money and could in fact have a value north of $ 800 million if certain mechanical stairs are respected.
Guerrero closed his talks with the Blue Jays at the start of spring training, a self-imposed deadline to lock the first basic player a season before hitting what is sure to be a lucrative free agency. The 25 -year -old man, who is 26 years old on Sunday, said to ESPN last week that he negotiated for a contract period similar to the SOTO agreement, but not for the same money.
“It is much less than Soto. We are talking about much less than Millions than Soto, more than one hundred million million people.
“I know the business. I lowered salary requests, but I also lowered the number of years. … I am looking for 14 (years). I would like 14, 15, even 20 if they give them to me, but do it in the right way.”
Guerrero is the best free consensus agent in the next winter class, with the Voltigator of the Chicago Cubs Kyle Tucker And the starting launcher of San Diego Padres Dylan stops.
In other words, Guerrero was not as consistent as other mega-contract players. Going off OPS +, which normalizes for Park and Era, four of his six seasons in Toronto were worse than the third brand of Soto from 142 in 2018, which was his year recruited. Identical to Aaron judgeWho has not descended below 143 since his first season. Mike Trout was considered in the Nadir of his career because he was at 132 years old in 2023.
However, Guerrero still has one of the highest offensive ceilings in baseball and will reach a free agency at the same time as Soto, and nothing is as important as age in free agency.
Delayed money quickly becomes the standard for mega-contracts in MLB, with an ancestor at Bobby Bonilla, a pioneer Max Scherzer And a perfection in Ohtani, who took the idea in overdrive by postponing 97% of the money in his agreement. The teams love it because it maintains their CBT payroll, which allows them to avoid luxury tax payments, and players often do not bother him because they always get the money they ask and have often compensated for it via a signature bonus.
Dodgers used the system several times during the offseason, but other teams too. This will continue until MLB sees a problem with this.
