Vladimir Guerrero Jr. spent Wednesday doing damage control, but he didn’t back away from the message that lit up baseball.
After the Toronto Blue Jays dropped their afternoon game to the Baltimore Orioles and were officially knocked out of playoff contention, Guerrero addressed the comments from a Spanish-language interview that had already gone viral. His point, as he explained it, was never that the money was tied to future production. It was about what he had already put on the field.
“I want people to understand one thing: The money they gave me wasn't for what I'm going to do; it was for what I already did,” Guerrero said in Spanish during a sit-down with Dominican reporter Veronika Batista published Wednesday morning. “They didn't pay me because I'm going to hit 40 every year. They paid me for what I already accomplished.
“People are confused about that, but I think the same way they do. Like, sometimes I even say to myself: 'Bro, they gave you all that money and you're out here doing nothing.' I try.”
Later, after Toronto’s loss, Guerrero tried to clarify the broader meaning of the remarks while speaking to reporters through interpreter Hector Lebron, according to Keegan Matheson of MLB.com.
“That was a quote from the interview when she asked me how I felt about this year,” Guerrero said. “I said that, obviously, I feel really bad about the year that I had, that I couldn't help my team get to the postseason.
I said I felt - that it's my personal opinion - that every player gets paid for what they have done. With that said, you guys have got to remember that I signed my contract at the beginning of last year, then I did put up a good year.
Then the kind of playoffs that I had to help the team get into the World Series.”
Asked directly whether he regretted the comments, Guerrero kept the answer simple.
“No, I don't regret myself. I'm not lying with what I say. I understand some fans, they don't understand the way and what I was trying to say specifically, but what I said is the way I feel.”
The backdrop matters here. Toronto gave Guerrero a 14-year, $500-million contract last April, the third-largest deal in baseball history. He followed that with a huge 2025 season and an October run that helped power the Blue Jays to an AL title and a Game 7 trip to the World Series.
This season has gone in a very different direction. Through 142 games, Guerrero is hitting .263/.335/.360 with a career-low nine homers and 56 RBIs. He has managed only one homer at Rogers Centre, and his .695 OPS is tied for the 23rd lowest among qualified hitters.
Guerrero also acknowledged that the size of the deal has been on his mind when things have gone sideways.
“Every at-bat that I fail, I think about my contract because I know people go to the field or they pay to go to see me be successful ... to do something good every year,” he said, according to Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Guerrero has kept working to dig out of the slump.
“Years like this, they can happen. ... He's not chalking this year up to 'OK, this is one of those years,'” Schneider said, per Sportsnet.
“He worked tirelessly to try to get out of the funk he was in. He tried new things, he tried different ways to prepare, and he posted every single day.”
Guerrero echoed that message for the fans.
“To the fans, I've never stopped working very hard,” he said, per Matheson. “I am going to go into the offseason again to prepare myself the best I can (for 2027). Physically, mentally, everything that I have, like I always do for my team and teammates.”
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