Mike Wilner: Blue Jay Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sets off a media firestorm at the worst possible moment - Toronto Star

Slugger's $500M contract comments draw heavy criticism on a day that saw Blue Jays eliminated from playoff contention.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has had a poor season, hitting just nine home runs, in the first year of a 14-year, $500-million (U.S.) contract.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Bluesky: @wilnerness

It was the last thing the Blue Jays needed.

In the midst of the first game of their Wednesday doubleheader in Baltimore, a 4-2 loss to the Orioles that mathematically eliminated them from playoff contention, their struggling star was going viral for all the wrong reasons.

An interview dropped in which Vladimir Guerrero Jr., told Spanish-language reporter Veronica Batista that he believes he was paid for past performance, not future, when he signed his big contract last year.

“The money they gave me wasn’t for what I’m going to do,” said Guerrero in Spanish. “It was for what I already did. They didn’t pay me because I’m going to hit 40 (home runs) every year, they paid me for what I already accomplished.”

It did not go over well with many Jays fans who took that to mean that now that he’s locked in his money, Guerrero is going to rest on his laurels and take it easy for the next dozen-or-so years, but the 27-year-old clarified his comments after that first game Wednesday.