Breaking Down a Big Weekend for the Jays

 Woosh, we were flying pretty high after the Jays swept the Nationals only to come crashing back down to earth with the Jays getting swept by the Mets. The biggest story of the weekend, or Monday morning, is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed a 14 year $500m extension to stay with the Jays. Lots to react to so lets get into it. 

Vlad Extension 

If you've ready my previous Jays posts, you know that I was calling not extending Vlad a win for the offseason. Now that's flipped on its head with the Jays and Vlad agreeing to a 14 year $500m contract, with no deferrals or opt outs. Baring a trade, Vlad will be in Toronto until 2040, a year that doesn't even sound real. My thoughts on this have been said again and again, I don't think a first baseman with only 2 elite seasons and 4 just pretty good seasons is worth $500m, but I understand why the Jays had to do it. The Jays would have been slammed had they let Vlad walk for nothing, it probably would've set the franchise back by a decade. Any trade offer they'd receive for Vlad this season would be limited by his expiring contract and big extension expectations, so a trade probably looks bad too. The only other option is to hold your nose and pay the guy, and that's what the Jays did. 

There's a lot of worlds where this works out for the Jays and looks really good in 5 years or so. When Vlad is hot he's one of, if not the best hitter in all of baseball and a force in the middle of the Jays lineup. While not at a premium position, Vlad has won a gold glove at first base before so we know he's capable of being a great defender there as well. There's not a lot of guys in Jays franchise history who have reached the heights Vlad can reach. I was going to try and make a point here like "wow look Vlad has the X best season in franchise history from a WAR perspective" and I was going to be super positive, but I can't. Vlad has the 14th best season by WAR in franchise history at 6.5. He did it in a season where his own teammate Marcus Semien had a WAR of 7.1. I can't really put a positive spin on this, it's a massive contract for a first baseman and for it to workout Vlad needs to be a triple crown threat every season. There is the positive that he's a homegrown guy that fans like to watch hit, and that is priceless. He's undoubtedly going to have some stretches over the next 14 years where he's lights out amazing at the dish making me look like a fool for being a hater, it's just a lot for a first baseman. He's off to a rough start so far this year, hopefully with this distraction out of the way he gets it going. The fans have 500m reasons to expect it now. 

Starting Pitching!

OK, too negative I am, the Jays just signed the face of the franchise for better or for worst, we should be happy. Lets get to the positives from this weekend to lighten the mood. All 3 of the starting pitchers against the Mets were awesome. Kevin Gausman got into trouble early giving up 2 runs in the first inning, but then went on to pitch lights out into the 6th inning. The Jays pulled him arguably too early with the heart of the order coming up for the 3rd time against him and the pen couldn't keep the game close. Chris Bassit was on full display on Saturday, 6.2 innings, 9 strikeouts, 4 hits and no earned runs. Everything you could ask for in a starter, unfortunately the bullpen couldn't hold a narrow lead in that one as well and Bassit's night was spoiled. I unfortunately had to miss the game on Sunday but it looks like the story was pretty similar, Bowden Francis (quickly becoming my favorite Jay) pitched into the 6th inning allowing only 2 runs, but it wasn't enough to get past the Mets on Sunday either. Ultimately, 3 losses, but if the Jays starters pitch like this they're going to win a lot of these games. If anything it gives me confidence if I'm going to a game, at least the starters won't take us out of it early. 

Bats >:( 

Ok back to the negative! A lot of people will say the pen blew it for the Jays this series, and I even said so just a paragraph ago about game 1 of the series. Realistically though, the Jays had a chance to win all 3 of those games if they could get the bats going at all. On the season so far Aaron Judge has 6 homeruns, the Jays have 5. It was cool and fun to see the small ball coming together against the Nationals, but realistically the big guys in this lineup need to start hitting and hitting it out of the park for the Jays to be competitive.  I've heard that Santander is a notoriously slow starter. I can appreciate that after watching years of Edwin Encarnacion hitting .200 in April only to hit 15 bombs in May. Vlad has had that extension hanging over him and as much as you want to think it doesn't impact things, it must weigh on the mind and add pressure to every at bat. Bo is hitting, just hot home runs yet but I have confidence it will come. The fact is, those 3 guys aren't carrying their weight just yet and until they do, the Jays need to rely on guys who aren't exactly known for their bats. Feels like the story of the last couple of seasons, at least we got to get hyped when they were 5-2. 

That's that for today! I have real work to do but I needed to chime in after a weekend crashing down to earth. I promise I'll try to be less of a Vlad hater guys, he's here until 2040 so I may as well support our guy. Go Jays!