The Toronto Blue Jays are officially in no-man’s land with first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Having passed the young superstar’s self-imposed deadline for a long-term extension, the Blue Jays will play out the final season of Guerrero’s rookie contract without resolution. He’ll hit free agency in November and Toronto will have to compete with 29 other teams to sign him.
Hopefully, for Blue Jays fans’ sake, it all works out. Toronto keeps Guerrero at the deadline, makes the playoffs, and re-signs their homegrown superstar in free agency. But what’s that old saying? Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
If the Blue Jays are out of the playoff race by mid-July, they’ll have to give serious thought to trading Guerrero for a prospect haul. Only they can decide if they still have a realistic shot at signing him, but losing him for nothing after missing the playoffs is by far the worst-case scenario.
To that end, Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer named seven possible trade suitors for Guerrero in a recent article, and an intriguing team on that list was the upstart Detroit Tigers.
“Detroit only just moved Keith to first base and the DH spot is in Kerry Carpenter’s capable hands. Yet the latter can also play the outfield, and the Tigers could otherwise find reps for Guerrero at third base. He played 100 innings there in 2024.”
“An imperfect situation, perhaps, but one potentially worth the risk for the Tigers. And even after adding so much payroll during the offseason, the club’s spending ceiling is still a long way away.”
The Tigers, coming off a surprise run to the American League Division Series, would be a fascinating fit for Guerrero. Their most obvious shortcoming was offense, and a lefty-righty duo of Guerrero and Riley Greene, who are both in their mid-twenties, could be frightening.
Of course, the Blue Jays would hate to see Guerrero in any other uniform at any point in his career. But they have to see the writing on the wall if they fall too far out of the playoff hunt.
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