The Blue Jays need more power production from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The Toronto Blue Jays are coming undone at the seams.
This team is a husk of what it was when Spring Training started. The offence has been stripped of all its firepower. The lone survivor is Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is struggling to put the team on his back despite being the 500 million dollar face of the franchise. He needs to do more damage if they’re going to survive this stretch, plain and simple.
Guerrero is getting his hits as always. He’s slashing .319/.427/.420 on the season after a 1-for-4 performance that included an RBI single in Friday’s game. The issue is that he has the same number of home runs as Myles Straw and Brandon Valenzuela on April 18th.
If a great batting average and modest power production were all that Guerrero was capable of, this wouldn’t be a discussion. But it’s not. He has a 48-home-run season under his belt and crushed a ridiculous eight home runs in 18 playoff games last year with a renewed focus on doing damage. He was destroying baseball while playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic just a few weeks ago.
So, does that version of Vladdy only come out when the stakes are high? Perhaps, but there’s no shortage of pressure or urgency right now. The Blue Jays are 7-12. They’ve been, by all accounts, one of the worst teams in baseball so far this season. The “it’s early” excuse only works until you’ve dug yourself an insurmountable hole.
Guerrero needs to tap back into whatever unlocked his home run barrage last fall. Right now, he’s back to beating balls into the dirt when his team desperately needs him to launch some over the fence.