OverDrive - Matheson on Guerrero Jr.'s mammoth contract extension, the win for the team and outlook of the deal

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Blue Jays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s $500 million contract extension with the team, the win-win situation for the deal, the further outlook for Guerrero Jr., the stance on Bo Bichette's future, the importance of offensive strength and more.

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This is a party where everyone is invited. The Earth Day Party Podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. 14 years, $500 million. Here's Keegan Matheson of MLB.com live from Fenway Park. Keegan, you and I, the three of us, the four of us, we've talked about Vlady for years. We've talked about the idea that this contract

it may happen it may not happen uh... are you at all surprised were ten games into this season and it decided this is the time we're gonna make this happen you know it does a little surprised on the timing i i'd never believed the deadline was a full deadline but i did think this was something that was going to stretch into next December. I thought that was the likeliest outcome here. Playing out

the season and then seeing what the market had to say, but clearly this has continued on and frankly good news for everybody. Good news for the Blue Jays, good news for Vladi, good news for all of our Sanities, good news for fans. uh... to have this off of everyone's chest to leave us you're asking john stider about something else everyday is i think a relief for everyone so did not think would happen in the early window of the season but i think that business by both sides here and just uh...

a massive moment guys i don't think you can overstate how big this is this organization keegan when something like this doesn't happen when there is a deadline met there's movement from one side of the other can you talk about where the movement came from here i'm obviously guessing is the blue jays and how much are we talking and is this a win by vladys camp himself and his agent the way this was played well

i will describe vladius camp as active. Maybe that is the best way to say it. In what sense? As you have report after report after report come out lately, there's been a lot of them. Some of it reported well, some of it reported terribly. A lot of that has been coming from Guerrero's side of that. Now that does not mean Vladius on the cell phone himself,

but a lot of that is coming from bloody side now the blue jays clearly needed to move a bit here as well a lot of that though guys was not just about the two big numbers we see which is fourteen and five hundred a lot of that was about deferred money a lot of that was about no trades or those deferrals especially were very big

opt-outs are another major thing in these deals we saw that with Soto and others those little details I think are where a lot of the movement had to happen and everybody loves a good big beautiful round number five hundreds everybody likes that and I think they've met in a good place but to your question oh Doug when you look at what first baseman have gotten paid in Major League Baseball yes. Bladdy's agency and Bladdy have done very well here because the Blue Jays were in a spot where they had to do this. I still think it's a good deal for them I still think this makes sense but they

had to do this because if they didn't you know what we would be talking about for the next year maybe five years. Well soegan, what will make this a good deal? Winning championships make you forget about valuations, and how much he is worth every single year. If the Blue Jays turn into a team that wins in the playoffs, nobody's going to be talking about is Laddie worth 37 million a year? He's worth a lot of money. Yes. But at this point they need big picture success. Individual success at this point doesn't matter much. You need to avoid turning Vladdy into the career that Carlos Delgado had here in Toronto. And I love Carlos Delgado as a hitter, an incredible

hitter, incredible player, but I'm talking about the team itself. Carlos Delgado's career here in Toronto existed in the middle of when teams were not good enough, not competing enough, there weren't enough wild card spots, and it was a strange way for that to play out. This team needs to win in the postseason. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has not won a postseason game. 0-2, 0-2, and 0-2 in the playoffs. That's not gonna fly. If that keeps happening, then you bet, my god, we are gonna be talking about that big $500 million salary of the books. If they are winning, you don't have to win the

World Series every year, but just 2015 and 2016, making those deep runs, exciting people. Then we start talking about something else entirely. I think Vlady, he'll have his up years, he'll have his down years, we've already seen that. But this team needs to win in the postseason. They have not done it since 2016. That's not good enough, that's not going to work. That's how this is going to be judged. With Keegan Matheson, MLB.com, Jay's at Fenway starting a series against the Red Sox tonight. Vladdy Gero, Jr. again signing a, or about to be signing a 14 year 500 million dollar extension he's still on term for this year

which will make him a blue jay for about 25 years he signed when he was 16 if he gets through this he'll be what 40 41 years old that'll be 25 years um you know if he plays through this whole thing we know he's going to own every single record. His number will be retired. Maybe it'll be statute territory. I think you're right. He's got to win. I think he's got to have individual success for that to happen.

But do you expect any tangible change when it comes to Vlad in the way he handles himself? In other words, responsibilities within the clubhouse, responsibilities within the marketplace, responsibilities with media on a daily basis. How does this contract in your opinion change what we could see from Vladi on a daily basis moving forward? There is a big difference between being the best player on your team and being the face of a franchise and I do not think there are 30 faces of franchise in Major League Baseball. I don't think it's close, quite frankly, guys. Now, he'll handle the money just fine. You give me $500 million, I'm going to be stupid.

Glad he's always had money. He knows how to handle that part. That'll be okay. But now, you are unequivocally, without dispute, no matter what, the face of this franchise. When you win, that's a great place to be. When you lose it's gonna suck because after they lose that crappy nine to one game in September you've got to be the guy that comes out and talks. Even if you went three for four that's what's hard for a lot of guys to deal with, to wrap their heads around. Even if it's not your individual failure you are now the face of the team's failures or their successes and not everyone can do that. I think Vlad is someone who is growing into that. I've seen that from him, I've been a rest with him, God as much as anybody over these

last eight nine years, I've seen him grow up in that role but there's no more hiding from anything at this point. Whether it's good or bad, you are the face of it. And I've seen that even in quiet moments around the clubhouse, around spring training. Gladdy is the guy saying, no, that drill sucks, do it again. No, that wasn't good enough, do it again. That's important when it's coming from your best player. And we'll see how that goes when the hard times come. That's the ultimate test. But that's's all on him now when you make that type of money it's all on you. So when you consider this this commitment from the team is the largest contract in team history by by a mile it's not even close the third largest contract in

baseball history if a fan comes up to you on the street and goes Keegan tell me who does this affect the most in terms of the image in terms of the possible outcome being positive for them is it Ross Atkins is it Mark Shapiro is it Rogers the owner where how would you answer that how would you respond to that type of question? Who you know what I wouldn't put this more in terms of the direction of the baseball ops which is a broad way to say Ross Atkins and the people who make baseball decisions. We have seen already, I think we've had the conversation about this team spending money.

Not only have they spent some money the last couple of years, but as we've talked about a bunch of times, guys, they've had to spend a hell of a lot more. They've tried to go out and get Shoei Otani. They've tried to go get Juan Soto. Those dudes are not cheap. So the money has been there. That covers ownership. That covers Mark Shapiro's job, I think, and what they've been doing. But you've needed the baseball side to land the guy. And they finally have. Now everything else gets easier. Because when you go chase a big free agent, and there's going to be some big ones this off season, you're not just saying come to Toronto, you're saying come play with Vladdy.

Not just for a year, but for the rest of your career, come play with Vladdy. And that changes the realities for this baseball side. So I put a lot of the credit for this, frankly, which is due on the baseball side and they got their guy. Man, we've talked about them chasing these big fish. He was here all along. It was always Vladdy and they got him. Will this have any effect on the negotiations with Bo

Bichette or is that just total sideline? I still think that exists all by itself. I really do. Now when Bo speaks, and I think this is genuine genuine that he does want to play with bladdy For good these guys have come up through the minor leagues For one player to play their career with a team is special, but these guys to do it together I mean everyone can picture that old baseball America magazine cover where they both look like they're 12 years old They're smiling over their shoulders at each other

For them to go from that to career teammates would be an all time story in Major League Baseball if they win. But I think Bo's place right now, he's coming off such a strange year last year. I think he's going to show everyone this year that he is a damn good baseball player. He always has been, but I think in his case, it's really hard to set a value at this point. So I, I still see that one reaching free agency what happens there will be but i don't think you're going to uh... here another big bomb of news tonight or anything like that with keegan matheson mlb dot com from from fenway jay's uh... red sox starting

a series tonight uh... and you know they just got swept the timing of this not the best not the best considering their you, you know, they're now five and five, they got swept in New York and the bats were asleep. And you look at the top of the lineup, Bichette, Guerrero, Santander, like none of them have hit a home run. Like none of them, like Santander's slash line is, is horrendous. Like it is, he has not arrived yet. He has not had any moments where you can look at and say okay there he is there's the guy and I'm listening to Schneider after

the game yesterday and I'm just rolling my eyes like the offensive come it's coming the home runs are gonna be we've been talking about this for years these are the three guys they need to get going are you a glass half full or glass half empty guy that they're five and five? Considering the statistics of those three guys at the top of the lineup Yeah, there's still baseball guys. This is the strange part I I walked in today and made a comment about Easton Lucas starting today and one of the blue J's PR guys said teegs It's burrios today. You can get back in the game here So we're playing catch-up, but the top of this lineup needs to be a ton better. This is obvious.

With Santander, guys, he is a notoriously slow starter, and that's not an excuse. It's not a good thing, so ever. But that's part of what you are purchasing when you sign Santander. His OPS in March and April has notoriously been very bad. Then suddenly it warms up and he heats up. That happens every single year. We used to see this with Lourdes Gurriel a bit so I think that will come but you need to see it from Vladdy ideally really soon after signing this contract and you need to see it from Bo now if you had asked me those guys four days

ago I'd say it's great news because they're finding other ways to win and those bats will come along but after a few days in Queens, we saw how poor the offense was. And like you said there, it was exactly like 2024. I felt like I was writing a 2024 story. So you cannot have that creeping back in. That is a legitimate cause for worry. I don't care if it's early. I never care if it's early. These games count just the same as the games in September do and getting off to a hot start is crucial in this division and with

the strength of schedule they're playing. So it's a legitimate cause for worry. I know Santander will come around because he always does but you need some power. Like we talked about right off the top of this. Five home runs with three from Jimenez.'s not gonna do it that's not what anyone expects no it's not and they're going into a situation here where the Red Sox they put 18 on the board last night like they are mashing the Yankees are breaking records for home runs hit early into the season and again every year we do this so I think the AL East is watered down I think it's gonna come back to the pack and it never ever does.

And the Blue Jays have to be aware of it because they've been in the division for a long, long time. Well Keegan, when do you think we're gonna actually have this contract officially signed? Like what is this physical gonna look like? Vladdy's in the lineup tonight. What exactly are they looking for in this physical to make it official? Well, I'll tell you the true story fellas I poked

around on this because I was worried I would have to travel to the city of Baltimore later this week if it took a while it sounds like it's gonna happen while we're still here in Boston which is good news for everyone we'll see what goes into this physical it's a very standard formal thing to go through they're not trying to find anything in particular, but standard operations that should be worked out over the next day or two. Hopefully that's something that we are talking about officially here in Boston at this series. And then of course there will be a ballroom gala, a big fancy official thing back in Toronto where

everybody rolls it out. But I think it'll be these next couple of days. Okay. We look forward to that. Great stuff Keegan. Appreciate you doing it. Enjoy Fenway Park, enjoy Boston and we'll do it again down the road. You got it, fellas. Take care. There he is Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. That just happened with me, Vashi Kapelos. Canada Decides 2025. Stay informed with my exclusive iHeartRadio podcast available Friday afternoon straight through till election day and beyond.

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