Toronto Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. set to make long awaited MLB debut

It appears as though Toronto Blue Jays fans will finally witness the major-league debut of top prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The time has finally come! Vladimir Guerrero Jr will make his long-awaited debut for the Toronto Blue Jays in the team’s upcoming weekend series against the Oakland Athletics.

It was initially reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that the Blue Jays were going to call up Guerrero for Tuesday’s series opener against the San Fransisco Giants. That was quickly retracted when the team denied the report.

The slugger will play his first big-league game on Friday when the Blue Jays welcome the Oakland Athletics to Toronto.

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In order to save another year of free agency, the Blue Jays had to stash Guerrero in Triple-A for the first few weeks of the campaign. He ended up straining his oblique during spring training, which forced him to miss about three weeks of action. He played three games for Single-A Dunedin before returning to the Buffalo Bisons for a final tuneup before making the leap to the majors.

In eight Triple-A appearances, he’s hit .367/.424/.700 with a double, three home runs, and eight RBIs.

In what likely served as his final minor league appearance, Guerrero went 2-for-5 with a home run and an RBI in Buffalo’s 5-4 win over the Syracuse Mets.

The Blue Jays have been hit with the injury bug early on in the campaign. Both Devon Travis and Dalton Pompey were placed on the injured list ahead of the first game of the year. The former had an arthroscopic procedure done on his left knee while the latter suffered another concussion after bumping his head off bats hanging out of his locker.

Clayton Richard was placed on the IL for a right knee injury in March and, most recently, Matt Shoemaker tore his ACL and will now miss the remainder of the 2019 season.

Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo also said that shortstop Freddy Galvis may require an IL stint due to a hamstring injury, according to Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith.

With Brandon Drury serving as the everyday third baseman, it’s more than likely that Guerrero opens his major-league career as the team’s designated hitter.

If he does play on Friday, that should be the biggest crowd at Rogers Centre this season. It likely won’t be anywhere near a sellout, but the hype train has grown so large that Guerrero’s debut will bring a large number of individuals out to the ballpark.