Toronto Blue Jays: Tough to avoid the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hype
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. continues to show the Toronto Blue Jays that his hype both on and off the field is rapidly growing.
It has come to the point in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s career where social media accounts will be monitored on a 24/7 basis. The Toronto Blue Jays‘ top prospect continues to be the center of attention, as fans push for his promotion.
On Tuesday afternoon, fans had a bit of a panic attack when a post on the 20-year-old’s Instagram account apparently showed him at an airport in New York. The obvious connection was that the Blue Jays play the New York Mets on Tuesday and maybe there was a chance of a promotion happening.
Unfortunately, that was just a re-post from back in December, which was a total buzzkill; but with no rumours about any potential promotion, it seemed like a farfetched idea. Given how the Blue Jays would have to make a corresponding move to make the prospect eligible, it’s probably not something management wants to think about right now.
On top of that, he would have had to start at either third base or first base, because of interleague play on the road. That would mean sitting either Justin Smoak or Josh Donaldson, or having Guerrero Jr. come off the bench late in the game.
Instead, the young prospect was in the lineup for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and once again his impressive power at the plate was on display.
https://twitter.com/LanceBrozdow/status/996165630465277953
At some point, Guerrero Jr. will get the bump to Triple-A Buffalo, but this current Blue Jays’ management group has no intention of rushing his development. Instead, he’s showing that he’s ready for the move.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has three more hits tonight
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) May 15, 2018
19-year-old #BlueJays prospect now batting .411 with a 1.135 OPS at double-A
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It would be one thing if the young prospect was just getting by at every level, but he’s blowing past every test that’s been thrown his way. Is he capable of hitting in the big leagues, with Yahoo‘s Jeff Passan arguing he is definitely up to the challenge.
Passan also brings up the impact calling up Guerrero Jr. will have on his service time, because the front office would want to try and control that as much as possible. Passan also argues that bringing up their prized prospect would certainly fill the seats at Rogers Centre, so losing an extra year of arbitration would probably be worth it.
Considering the amount of hype one Instagram post (which has since been deleted) received, it’s safe to say the eventual debut will probably be one of the most anticipated in franchise history.
There is no doubt the hype is becoming tough to ignore. However, as long as Guerrero Jr. is able to handle it and even have fun with it, the Blue Jays should just worry about eventually making room for his bat in the lineup.
Next: Blue Jays need to find a solution with Kendrys Morales
What did you think about the Guerrero Jr. Instagram post? What should the Blue Jays do with him next? Let us know in the comments below.