All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to a long-term contract extension worth $500 million over 14 seasons, Ken Rosenthal reports. The current 2025 season had been Guerrero’s walk year, which means the deal removes Guerrero from the 2025-26 class of free agents.
Guerrero’s contract, which includes no deferrals, sets the record for the largest contract extension in MLB history. The record previously belonged to Mike Trout, who prior to the 2019 season signed a $426.5 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels. As well, Guerrero’s is also the third-most lucrative contract in MLB history, trailing just Juan Soto’s $765 million free-agent deal with the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million free-agent contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 26-year-old Guerrero, coming into the current season, boasted a career slash line of .288/.363/.500 (138 OPS+) with 160 home runs, 177 doubles, and a WAR of 21.3. Along the way, Guerrero has won a Gold Glove and a pair of Silver Sluggers and earned four straight All-Star selections. He also finished runner-up in the American League MVP vote in 2021 and finished sixth in the balloting last season.
Having debuted in the majors as a 20-year-old put Guerrero in line for free agency at an uncommonly young age. That plus his distinguished record of performance at the plate would’ve led to one of the largest free-agent paydays ever and the Jays had to compete with the prospect of that healthy market for his services.
The Jays’ extension of Guerrero, whom they first signed as an international free agent in 2015 when he was 16 years of age, comes after a meandering journey. Not so long ago, such an accord seemed impossible, as the two sides failed to come to agreement before Guerrero’s self-imposed deadline for negotiations in February prior to the beginning of full-squad workouts in spring training.
“I’m here. We didn’t get an agreement,” Guerrero said at the time through an interpreter. “Now, they’re going to have to compete with 29 other teams.”
Nearly two months later, however, Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro struck a surprisingly optimistic tone about the club’s chances of securing Guerrero’s services for beyond the 2025 season, even though the supposed deadline for talks had long passed.
“I think we’re going to sign him. I think we’re going to extend him,” Shapiro said. “The reason I feel that way is because we have such a clear alignment on the desired outcome.”
As it turns out, Shapiro’s words were more prophetic than quixotic, and Guerrero will indeed be a Blue Jay for years to come.
