Toronto Blue Jays fans should be mad about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sitting

In their return from the road trip, the Toronto Blue Jays decided to sit Vladimir Guerrero Jr. against the Boston Red Sox, a decision that has drawn a lot of criticism.

The last thing you would expect any professional sports team to do is sit their main attraction as the Toronto Blue Jays did with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on Victoria Day.

While the team attempted to justify the decision as a scheduled rest day there were probably more reasons to have the No. 1 prospect in baseball playing instead of sitting. They could have picked any other game this but choose to do it on a Canadian holiday where there will probably be a larger crowd than any game over the next couple of days.

"“We’ve got a set deal, he needs to get a day off,” Charlie Montoyo said to reporters about the decision. “Everybody is going to get a day off, anyway, 16 straight days, so today was Vlad’s.”"

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First of all, who is the deal with? Does Guerrero Jr. tell the team when he needs a breather? Or is there someone else making that decision for the manager and the player? Unfortunately, that type of information typically stays quiet.

Some are comparing the situation to Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors with “load management” being used at various points when the Raptors were sitting their star player. The main difference, Kawhi was coming off an injury-riddled season and star players in the NBA hold more power than management does (for the most part).

What the team is doing with this decision making is giving the impression that they are protecting Vladdy from something, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet writes, although we’re not sure what that is. Sure he had an injury which delayed the start of his season but it wasn’t anything that brought a great deal of concern.

Considering the team’s direction this season, the Blue Jays cannot afford to get on the fanbases bad side with a decision to sit the player they want to come and watch. Sure, the team shouldn’t base their decisions on what fans want but paying customers should get the best possible product the team can produce.

It’s not like Vlad Jr. has been dealing with a nagging issue or has shown a need to get time off. In fact it’s been the exact opposite!

The 20-year-old was just named the AL player of the week after a crushing stretch where he hit .333 with four home runs, nine RBIs, three walks and five runs scored. Imagine if sitting him actually does more harm then good.

There aren’t many teams willing to take that chance, they usually ride the hot hand until they can’t do it anymore. Also, why do it against the Boston Red Sox? Between them and the New York Yankees, the Blue Jays shouldn’t be making life easier for them.

We’ll see if this outcry actually has an impact on the next decision to sit Guerrero Jr. but maybe they should try to limit the off-days to road games.