TORONTO -- There’s a difference between being the best player on your team and the face of a franchise.
There aren’t 30 of those in baseball, either. True faces of a franchise share a small club, each of them representing the perfect intersection of talent and timing while embracing the city -- or country -- around them. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is in that club now.
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Guerrero is now what Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro calls a “legacy player," someone who builds his entire career in one city. Set to represent the Blue Jays at his fifth career All-Star Game alongside Alejandro Kirk, Guerrero could easily end his career with a dozen or more appearances. Fans in Canada know Guerrero as the face of the franchise, but with his 14-year, $500 million extension kicking in next year, the rest of baseball will get used to it, too.
“Getting a franchise player and a homegrown player to grasp onto as an organization and a fanbase is such a good thing,” manager John Schneider said on MLB Network. “Vladdy is everything you want in a player who’s going to be the face of your franchise going forward. He’s taken that ownership with the contract. I’ve watched him grow up in the game, and when you sign that deal, there’s certain expectations that come with that, and he knows that.
"He’s responded well. You don’t get those contracts very often. It’s a really good thing for our fans, for one, and to have that stability in the middle of our lineup for a lot of years to come is great for this team.”
There’s more to this than baseball. Guerrero has long embraced Toronto, but Canadian baseball fans have rarely felt “chosen” by baseball’s biggest stars. That’s changed in recent years as the big-money Blue Jays have landed names such as Hyun Jin Ryu, George Springer, Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and others, but that old reputation is still hard to shake. Vladdy, who signed as a 16-year-old back in 2015, chose to spend his baseball life here.
Now, we’re seeing what that looks like.
We’re still waiting on that patented Guerrero hot streak, but he’s been front and center in all of the right moments, from team events to catching the ceremonial first pitch prior to the Blue Jays’ recent game on Pride Night.
Guerrero’s Blue Jays reeled off 10 consecutive wins leading up to the All-Star break, including a four-game sweep of the Yankees, to surge to the top of the AL East. Around Guerrero, it feels like the entire roster has adopted his rare balance of fun and professionalism.
“This is one of the best years since I’ve been here in the clubhouse,” Guerrero said through a club interpreter. “Once I wake up, I just can’t wait to get to the field to be with my teammates. It’s been unbelievable. It’s what any manager wants, a team like that and a culture like that.”
One moment he’s dancing, the next he’s locked in. From the top down, that rubs off.
“This is day by day, day by day,” Guerrero said late in the Blue Jays’ 10-game winning streak. “That’s the type of player that I am. For example, we won tonight. It’s over with. Let’s get ready for tomorrow. As a team, we should live day by day.”
Everything comes back to Vladdy with this team. Forever, it will come back to Vladdy. While he’s playing all of the right notes off the field and in the clubhouse, his numbers going into the All-Star break this year don’t necessarily capture his talent. Down the stretch last year, Guerrero reminded the league that, when he’s hot, he’s one of the most dominant hitters on the planet. The Blue Jays need to see that hitter again.
“It can happen with one at-bat or one swing, really,” Schneider said. “His work is good. He’s consistent in everything he does. At some point in time, he’s going to get on a heater and he’ll end up carrying us for a while. He just can’t try to do too much. He has to let the game come to him and be who he is. He is who he is for a reason.”
Everything matters more when it comes from the face of the franchise. That’s written in stone for Guerrero now, and no matter how many All-Star Games wait in his future, he’ll be measured by October, not July.
That moment feels close, when Guerrero reminds everyone that he’s not just the face of this franchise, he’s one of the best players in baseball, too.