Time running out for Blue Jays’ Guerrero Jr. to re-write his season’s narrative

Bo Bichette was hitting .260 on Aug. 31, 2022. In a two-week span he’d bounced round from sixth to fifth in John Schneider’s lineup. He’d even hit seventh — twice, since Schneider changed Charlie Montoyo as Blue Jays supervisor on July 13.

“Bo is an ultra-competitive guy, so he’s probably not thrilled about it,” Schneider stated on the day he first hit Bichette seventh. “It was a bit of a conversation, but I think he gets it. Our standards for him are high.”

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No much less, you’d assume, than the requirements for Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., who like Bichette a yr earlier can within the subsequent month re-write a story that has been, properly, nondescript at finest. To that finish, two dwelling runs up to now three video games may be a harbinger. Which could be well timed, since — to place it politely — the Blue Jays’ season hangs within the stability and the workforce appears as if it’s on fumes, verging on what could be a stunningly disappointing playoff miss.

Think how that dialog between Bichette and Schneider will need to have gone in 2022. Schneider managed Bichette by way of the minors and as Montoyo’s bench coach had served as a little bit of a tender shoulder for the shortstop, who continued to listen to the baying from a budget seats to maneuver him to second base. Sure, Schneider was simply attempting to shake issues up, give the brand new lineup a glance. Still, it wasn’t arduous to think about how Bichette would initially take it. He may very well be forgiven for questioning whether or not Schneider was utilizing him for instance.

Like Guerrero’s 2023, Bichette’s 2022 was a season looking for a story, and you understand what meaning. Whispers of dissatisfaction. Wondering about his place on the desk, after a winter through which Bichette pressured the workforce to resume him — taking the one route accessible to a pre-arbitration eligible participant who feels aggrieved by the workforce’s wage provide. Bichette’s defence at a premier place solely exacerbated the adverse view from the skin.

Talk about flipping the script: Bichette raised his common by 30 factors between Aug. 30 and the season’s finish on Oct. 5, main the American League in hits for the second consecutive season. He raised his OPS from .725 to .802. He hit in all however 4 video games and had 18 multi-hit video games, and for all of the blah-blah-blah a few two-strike strategy, he was aggressive — 85 per-cent of his at bats in that month didn’t attain two strikes. His 48 hits in September had been essentially the most ever by a Blue Jays participant; he was named participant of the week from Sept. 5-12. “Bo’s game is tighter now than it’s ever been,” Schneider stated on the eve of the AL playoffs.

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It’s carried over. Despite lacking two weeks with patellar tendinitis, Bichette is as soon as once more main the AL in hits and made the All-Star Game after not being chosen in 2022. He additionally agreed to phrases with the workforce on a three-year, $33.6-million contract. Bye-bye arbitration distractions; hi there framework for a possible extension earlier than hitting free company following the 2025 season.

Odd. The feeling all alongside for a few years was that of the 2 it could be Guerrero, somewhat than Bichette, who would signal some kind of long-term deal. The Blue Jays entrance workplace has all the time used the phrase “shared risk” each time discuss centered on longer-term offers for the 2, however Guerrero was the one who spoke most overtly about wanting a contract. For no matter motive, there has all the time been a extra proprietary feeling round Guerrero than Bichette; the sense that if the Blue Jays had been ever going to grow to be one participant’s “team,” it was going to be Guerrero.

Now? It’s difficult and determining Guerrero’s 2023 season has grow to be a cottage trade. He might be as drained as the remainder of us listening to how he hits the ball arduous — and he does: his 216 hard-hit balls (95 miles per hour plus) lead the American League by a cushty margin.

But whether or not it’s dangerous luck, hitting technique, too many alternative, complicating and competing voices — or some type of lingering well being difficulty — Guerrero’s 2023 has been stuffed with empty energy. The numbers present these hard-hit balls aren’t going so far as they used to. Guerrero is 63rd in OPS within the Majors in comparison with ninth from 2020-2022. He was eighth in WRC+ from 2020-2022; this yr he’s 58^th. He’s thirty eighth in complete bases and is a half-fWAR participant (0.5) after being 6.3 and a couple of.8 fWAR in 2021 and 2022, respectively. He’s main the Blue Jays in dwelling runs and RBI, however on a workforce that has come up quick repeatedly in key offensive conditions … Again, empty energy.

Guerrero is 2 years faraway from that 2021 runner-up Most Valuable Player marketing campaign the place he performed 70 dwelling video games in minor-league ballparks because of Covid restrictions. He arrived with the repute that comes with being the sport’s top-ranked prospect. But he additionally got here with the notoriety that arises from having a Hall of Fame father whose calling card was a capability to hit any pitch at any time. One of Guerrero, Sr.’s hitting coaches with the Los Angeles Angels, Mickey Hatcher, stated that watching Senior take batting observe was like watching somebody wielding a tennis racket.

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Vladdy, Jr., will not be his father, a lot as we’d all dearly love him to be. It’s comprehensible, since he arrived on the scene simply as Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion had been ending their run — an period of baseball that re-established the Blue Jays as a nationwide model and helped flip the Rogers Centre into a spot to be. Bautista’s Bat Flip gave a complete new technology its personal “contact ‘em all” moment and it was easy to see Guerrero picking up the bat from Bautista and that gang and saying: “I got us.” And now we are just two years away from his free agency and, well, anybody know what happened to all that talk about Fernando Tatis, Jr.,’s contract setting the template for Vladdy? Rafael Devers’? Let’s be clear: with out playoff success, the dialogue in some unspecified time in the future turns into much less about locking Guerrero as much as a market-shaking, long-term deal and extra about questioning whether or not he’s extra Pippen than Jordan. The subsequent step? Wondering about maximizing his commerce worth as free company creeps nearer. Hey, it’s occurred to raised gamers. And worse.

Guerrero was not in a position to choose up his recreation throughout Bichette’s absence between July 31-Aug. 19, going 14-for-64 (.218) with one dwelling run and three doubles. But right here comes September with its arms huge open, with a workforce trying showing to grab up in a five-way combat for a playoff spot that was, frankly, speculated to be a given. Bichette now has a quad difficulty to fret about. Matt Chapman’s center finger on his throwing hand is infected. It’s a complete new alternative to craft an enormous, daring narrative after which, properly, who is aware of what the winter brings? It’s not prefer it hasn’t occurred earlier than, you understand?

Jeff Blair is the co-host of Blair & Barker from 5-7 ET on the Sportsnet Radio Network and Sportsnet, He additionally hosts Blue Jays Talk.