Last night was a glimpse into the future. Vlady Jr. stepped up to the plate with nobody on and two out in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth inning. The crowd was roaring, the pressure was as high as it could possibly be for a meaningless exhibition game, but Vlad Jr. was calm and composed like a 10-year veteran despite having just turned 19 a couple weeks ago.

Jack Flaherty served up a pitch on the inside of the plate at Vlad Jr. crushed it. There wasn’t a doubt. Vlad Jr. knew it was gone. The guys on the bench knew it was gone. The crowd knew it was gone. Everybody in Canada knew it was gone. It honestly seemed like it was scripted.

Vlady trotted around the bases as Olympic Stadium exploded with applauds. Meanwhile, Bo Bichette jumped off the bench like he was the most excited person in the building. Vlad rounded third, tossed him helmet into the air, and got swarmed by teammates. After that moment, it became official — Vladimir Guerrero is a Blue Jay.

This, sooner rather than later, is what life is going to be for the Blue Jays.

Last week, the Phillies inked Scott Kingery, a soon-to-be 24-year-old they grabbed in the second round of the 2015 draft to a six-year contract with three options worth a guaranteed $24 million. Kingery has never played a Major League Baseball game. But the Phillies believe in him. And there’s a good chance this could become the new normal. Our friend Blue Ox did something on it yesterday you should read if you haven’t yet. 

Players need to play six full seasons before hitting free agency. Kingery is guaranteed money for those six seasons now, and there are options to make more money afterwards. The Phillies now don’t have to worry about doing the Kris Bryant thing where they send a guy down in order to manipulate his service time.

Evan Longoria signed a similar deal shortly after making his debut back in 2008. The third overall pick from the 2006 signed draft $17.5 million, six-year contract, a deal that, at the time, could have been worth up to $44.5 million over nine seasons. I would say it certainly worked out for the Rays. Jon Singleton signed a $10 million contract with the Astros before playing the Majors and never reached his potential. I would say it didn’t work out for the Astros.

In Atlanta, the Braves reportedly offered Ronald Acuna a contract worth $30 million. He declined. There isn’t much of a surprise that Alex Anthopolous of all people is on the ball with this new trend we’re seeing. The Braves aren’t going to start Acuna on the 25-man roster on Opening Day despite the fact he could honestly already be their best player.

This, of course, like we saw with Bryant, is about service time and extending a player’s free agent clock. Come this time next year, we could be seeing a similar thing with our Large Adult Sons, Bo and Vlad. I wrote the other day about how I doubt we see Bo and Vlad on the team this season as the front office doesn’t want to lean into starting their free agent clocks.

That brings us to this week’s What Would You Do Wednesday question. Should the Jays be looking to do a Kingery style deal with Bo and/or Vlad? Does the team believe enough in the potential of both players to lock them up to a contract that could make them absurdly cheap down the road? We saw it work with Longoria, he made much, much less in his All-Star seasons than he could of had he gone to arbitration. But then, on the other side of the spectrum, the Astros essentially poured $10 million into a toilet with Singleton.

I asked this over the weekend and people were very stressed out by it. I had some equally aggressive quote tweets from people saying “WHY WOULD BO AND VLAD DO THAT THEY COULD MAKE WAY MORE” and “WHY WOULD THE JAYS DO THAT THEY HAVEN’T EVEN PLAYED A FUCKING GAME YET YOU IDIOT!”

I’ll admit the 10-year, $100 million figure was hyperbolic to create a reaction, but there’s merit to this. As we’re seeing with Kingery, teams are taking calculated risks on players they believe in because it could save them a lot of money down the road.

I mean, if you can cost-control Bo and Vlad, who, honestly, are the future of this franchise for the 2020s, shouldn’t you do it?