HOUSTON -- The final two months of the Blue Jays’ season matter because they must matter. These cannot be empty days, filling time between now and the offseason.
Tuesday afternoon, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stood in a changed clubhouse. He’s the face of the Blue Jays, a 53-60 team which had just traded Kevin Gausman, Jeff Hoffman and Daulton Varsho, all cornerstones of this team’s World Series run less than a year ago. They also made some major additions, led by José Soriano in the rotation, and it’s clear which direction this season is headed in. It’s been slowly skidding in that direction all year.
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This isn’t complicated to Guerrero, either. Asked what needs to happen for this team to get back on track, he thinks for a moment and smiles, acknowledging just how obvious the answer is.
“I have to start hitting,” Guerrero said. “I have to start hitting. I think we’ve been playing good. Sometimes, we get shut down, but it’s always one game at a time. I need to get hot so that we can keep going and try to make the playoffs.”
The playoffs?
That’s still the goal, because it has to be. Teams like the Blue Jays don’t rebuild. Teams fresh off a World Series run with a $500 million player don’t rebuild, and teams packing 41,000 fans a night into Rogers Centre don’t rebuild. The Blue Jays want to make a run because that’s all there is left to do.
This is what makes trades like the Soriano addition so crucial, carrying momentum into a new year. Guerrero doesn’t want to talk about 2027, though. He doesn’t view that -- or anything else the Blue Jays did at the Deadline -- as a step back to focus on the future.
“I wouldn’t say next year,” Guerrero said. “We are four games back of the Wild Card. We are still competing. There are still 49 games. Something can happen. Go out there, have fun and play to win these games.”
Coming into play Tuesday, Guerrero was batting .261 with a .690 OPS. He has just six home runs, tied for 232nd in baseball, and hasn’t homered at Rogers Centre this season. Not once.
Given the true greatness we witnessed from Guerrero in the 2025 postseason, this has been one of the most stunning seasons in Blue Jays history. The offense as a whole has followed Guerrero, too, ranked last in scoring and tied for 28th in home runs with just 108 entering Tuesday. John Schneider has tried everything he can with the lineup, short of pulling names from a hat. He wants these players to let it rip and take some risks, anything to find a heartbeat again.
“It’s no secret we need some guys to go,” Schneider said. “There’s a fine line between waiting for that to happen and being really, really aggressive to make it happen. We’re going to need Springer, Vladimir, Kirk and Sánchez now that he’s back. We’re going to need them to drive the ball. It’s nice that you know your group a little bit. We’ve got to really lean into an identity.”
Guerrero, in the simplest terms, is the shortcut.
There’s not enough time left for this team to fix all of its flaws -- that’s for the offseason -- but if Vladdy were sitting here today with 20 home runs and a .900 OPS, we’d be having a much different conversation. The uncomfortable part of stardom is often realizing and acknowledging your own power, and Guerrero knows what a difference that he alone could make.
“My mindset is always positive. I’m going out there and trying to do the best I can to help the team win, every day,” Guerrero said. “If I’m not doing it with my bat, I’m doing it with my glove. I try to do something, all the time, to be better for my team. When you have that in your mind, something good can happen.”
There haven’t been enough good things happening in 2026. That’s why Gausman is in Chicago, Hoffman is in Minneapolis and Varsho walked across the field to Houston’s dugout on Monday.
The postseason isn’t realistic at this point, their odds at just 6.7% on FanGraphs, but these games still need to matter. Guerrero can make them matter, even if this all points toward a 2027 season he doesn’t want to acknowledge just yet.