BALTIMORE — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. isn’t afraid to admit it: His 14-year, $500 million contract absolutely weighed on him during this, his most unproductive season of his decorated career.
Guerrero signed that megadeal in March 2025 and then drove the Toronto Blue Jays all the way to Game 7 of the World Series with a fantastic postseason. Yet he followed that with the worst season of his career, most notably failing to hit a home run in his own ballpark until the 75th home game of the season.
After the Blue Jays were officially eliminated from 2026 contention with a 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, Sept. 23, Guerrero came clean: Every weak grounder, every strikeout, every Blue Jays loss weighed significantly on him.
As did the notion of living up to his contract.
“I’ve got to be honest with you: Of course. Every at-bat that I fail, I think about my contract,” Guerrero said via club interpreter Hector Lebron between games of a split doubleheader at Camden Yards. “I know all the people who go to (Rogers Centre), they pay to see me being successful, to do something good every at-bat.
“Every time, I think about my contract, mentally. So, it is what it is.”
Here’s what it is: Guerrero’s batted .263 with nine home runs and a .695 OPS this season. He’s established full-season career lows in virtually every major category, most notably slugging percentage – .360 with just 34 extra-base hits, his slugging down more than 100 points from last year’s .467 and .495 career mark entering this season.
To say nothing of October 2025: Guerrero had one of the greatest postseason runs in recent history, batting .397 with a .494 OBP, 1.289 OPS, eight homers and 29 hits in 18 games.
But that run came at a cost. Guerrero says he took six weeks off after the World Series to let his body recover, which certainly cut into his typical offseason training regimen. While the 6-foot, 245-pound first baseman remains in good shape and didn’t go on the 10-day injured list this season, hamstring and lower back maladies and a stint on the concussion IL stymied him.
Guerrero insisted injuries were not to blame for his poor production, though he was quick to credit Toronto’s staff for getting him game-ready.
“When it’s a bad year, it’s a bad year,” he says. “I didn’t have any major injuries. Some things that happened through the year, I gotta say, our medical staff and trainers did a great job. They worked very hard with me.
“Maybe I wasn’t 100% physically, but it is what it is. I tried my best every day to go out there as ready as I could. It’s over right now.”
Blue Jays fans have been forgiving of their six-time All-Star through his home run drought and other struggles, but some took exception to a recent Spanish-language interview he conducted with journalist Veronica Batista.
He intimated that he was being paid his $500 million deal “for what he’d already done,” comments that were perhaps lost in translation to indicate his deal was a reward, not a pact to live up to.
Guerrero aimed to clarify that Wednesday.
“I said, obviously, I felt really bad about the year I had. Couldn’t help get my team to the postseason,” he says. “And I said I feel every player gets paid for what they’ve done. Now, with that said, I signed my contract at the beginning of last year. And I did put a good year, and then the playoffs to help the team get into the World Series.
“To the fans, I have never stopped working very hard. I’m going to go into the offseason again to prepare myself to do the best I can. Physically, mentally, everything I have.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said the struggles of his 77-81 club were collective and has the staff preparing for a significant self-examination, one year after they won 94 games, the AL East and the AL pennant.
Guerrero, he said, did not accept failure.
“For Vlad in particular, he’s got all the potential in the world. We know that,” says Schneider of Guerrero, who has played in 141 games this season. “We’ve seen him be one of, if not the best player in the game. Years like this can happen. Myself, my staff and Vlad – he’s not chalking this up to oh, this is one of those years.
“He worked tirelessly to try and get out of that funk he was in. He tried different ways to prepare and he posted every day. It’s hard to pinpoint it.”
For Guerrero, 2026 is certainly one to grow on. And he can only hope that the $500 million deal that began this season creates a bar to reach, not an anvil that weighs him down.
“I have to learn a lot from this year. It’s a process,” he says. “Especially when you go to the World Series, like last year, that was my goal again this year. You put that pressure on yourself a little bit, trying to take your team back to the World Series. It didn’t happen.
“I wasn’t expecting the year that I had. But I’m going to be working on that.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. says $500 million deal on his mind 'every at-bat I fail'
