The day that every single Blue Jays fan has been waiting for has finally come. The top prospect in all of baseball, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s service time has been manipulated to the point that now he will reach free agency a year later than normal.
If a player spends 172 days on a major league roster it counts as a year of service time, but from this day on Vlad’s maximum will be 171 days earned, therefore not earning a year of service time and pushing his free agency eligibility. The narrative has been beaten to death, but it has been at the front of baseball’s mind this year because of how other young talents are being treated.
Fernando Tatis Jr. getting the call for the Padres and on-track to earn a year of service time certainly put some more pressure than there was previously on the Jays. As well as Eloy Jimenez signing a massive extension that disregards the whole service time headache, as well as his arbitration years.
Today is a day that can somewhat relieve some fans. The whole story that has been talked about to a nauseating degree can now be slowly quieted and will most likely be silenced once Vlad makes his major league debut in the coming weeks (hopefully).
This whole story definitely provides some peak “baseball is broken” storylines, so it doesn’t install hope in how the system is currently run and used.
Luckily, we have some other stories to talk about and it’s how damn happy we can be that Vlad is in this system.
Blue Jays’ prospect Vlad Guerrero Jr. smacked an absolute moonshot in a Triple-A game tonight. A huge homer. pic.twitter.com/YKTezH5u7Q
— Max Wildstein (@MaxWildstein) April 12, 2019
In his first game back in Triple-A after moving up from a Dunedin rehab stint, he absolutely showed why he should be in the major leagues. He went 2-for-4 with a walk, a double, a stolen base, four RBI, and an absolutely demolishing home run that was sent to Mars.
Ignoring the “and a partridge in a pear tree” singalong, having a performance like that has us all salivating over the hopes that he can come and bring some life into the currently-decaying bats in the Jays’ lineup.
He’s just one player, but he is special and we all already know that. Now we just patiently wait for his debut and will go even crazier but in a good way.
Now we have to pray that he doesn’t get windmill cancer
Where I live, they put up 77 wind turbines in 2016.
The number of people who I see on the daily with blood just pouring out of their ears from all that cancer they got is, well, it’s staggering.
Plakata! Bo on base in front of him… a glimpse of 2020. Be still my beating boner.
This is great news for Jays fans, 7 years of Guerrero jr.
7 years isn’t great news. 7 years is a given. A 12 year contract would be great news.
No more than 12, though. He’s going to turn into a pumpkin at 33.
I want the Jays to tweet that they have signed Vladdy to a 20-year, $41 million (Canadian Tire $$$) extension, wait until Jeff Passan declares martial law in CAN-US-MEX and Cuba, so he can award the Jays to one of his rotisserie friends…then the Jays say their account was hacked and they delete the tweet.
He turned into a pumpkin at 19.
I wouldn’t give him a two year contract at this point.
Rad take. ‘Service time manipulation’!. Wow. You’re rad!.
To someone who knows fuck all about baseball, fuck all about sports and fuck all about business, it may seem strange that a fat 20 year old, who managed to gain weight at a record pace as a teenager if you can believe it, and who managed to injured himself and turn in a shit spring, isn’t put on the 25 man roster at the outset of the season while on the IL. To the grownups it’s pretty obvious
And Fernandis Tatis and Eloy Jiminez didn’t turn themselves into 270 lb. ‘two seat on an airplane’ cases by age 19. Vladdy can be renamed Vlabby.
Nice to see your 90 day jail sentence for exposing yourself to old ladies in the park is up. Welcome back!