DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made his much-anticipated debut in 2019, the focus has slowly but steadily shifted from his bat to his body.

Just as Guerrero was expected to pick up steam late in his rookie year and enjoy a power surge down the stretch, he got tired. That’s not rare for a first-year hitter who’s playing deep into September for the first time in their career, but it opened Guerrero’s eyes to what he needs to do next.

Guerrero still has plenty of work ahead of him to make one offseason of improved conditioning become a habit that he carries with him instinctually, but the Blue Jays are pleased with these initial steps. Manager Charlie Montoyo is encouraged that his young third baseman took a look at his 2019 challenges, digested what they meant and embraced the necessary change.

“He learned,” Montoyo said. “You have to learn, first. He learned that he ran out of gas in September and that’s why he worked so hard this offseason, so that doesn’t happen this year.”

A better body will lead to a better bat for Guerrero, who forced the issue in search of power at times as a rookie, but it might show more clearly in his defense. Guerrero was worth -16 OAA (Outs Above Average) in 2019, ranking last out of 218 qualified infielders, and most of that negative value came from balls he had to charge in on.

If Guerrero feels lighter on his feet and grows more comfortable bending down to make a play on ground balls while he’s running, he’ll have a far easier time sticking at third base for the time being.

“I feel great right now. It’s a big difference right now in terms of taking ground balls when I want to attack the ball,” Guerrero said. “The legs feel a lot lighter now. I’ve been working with Luis [Rivera]. There’s a big difference.”

Long term, of course, talk of a move to first base will persist unless Guerrero completely flips the script with his glove. Montoyo believes that Guerrero has the hands for first base — which he certainly does — but this is a better roster if Guerrero is playing a competent third. For now, that’s all he’s focused on.

“I’m working very hard at third base and I’m not thinking about anything else right now,” Guerrero said. “I’m going to put my head down and keep working as a third baseman and we’ll see what happens.”

Early plans for backup shortstop
The Blue Jays don’t have the classic glove-first, veteran shortstop candidate in camp to serve as a backup to Bo Bichette, and they might not need it. Bichette rarely took a break in 2019 — even as Guerrero was given regular rest days — and is expected to be out there nearly every day in 2020.

Joe Panik, Santiago Espinal, Rubén Tejada and prospects are in camp as backup infielder options, but the early strategy seems to be a small dose of Brandon Drury at short throughout the season.

“If Brandon Drury plays 10 games at short, that's great,” Montoyo said. “That means Bo will DH one day and have nine days off.”

Bichette addresses Astros scandal
Bichette met with the media for the first time this spring and addressed the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. The 21-year-old is grateful that he wasn’t directly impacted, adding that the response from those players involved has been “tough to watch.”

Bichette’s perspective as a young voice is particularly interesting, given how players aren’t often vocal early in their careers, but Bichette was confident in saying he would not have participated in the sign stealing if he saw it happening.

“No, absolutely not,” Bichette said. ”I would hope that I would have made a pretty big ruckus that we were doing that in the first place."

Charlie won’t miss Mookie
Montoyo has spent five years watching Mookie Betts treat the AL East like a video game before he was dealt to the Dodgers recently. He’s glad there won’t be a sixth.

“As a baseball fan, he was fun to watch,” Montoyo said. “Again, he wasn’t fun to watch in the bottom of the ninth coming up with a one-run lead or whatever it was, but I’m glad he’s not in our division anymore. That’s great.”