How good is Blue Jays Vladimir Guerrero Jr. feeling? Try 2021 good

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DUNEDIN — The longer Vlad Guerrero Jr. is around baseball, perhaps the more he is getting a feel for strategy.

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While ultimately how he performs against opposing pitchers will be the true measure of the Blue Jays first basemen’s success, he showed some strategic acumen prior to training camp that put just shy of an extra $2 million US in his pocket.

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When asked on Tuesday why he attended his contract arbitration hearing in person earlier this month in Arizona, Guerrero made a sound point,.

“If I don’t go, I lose,” Guerrero said through team translator Hector Lebron.

In other words, with Vlad in the room, were the Jays really going to instruct the lawyers representing the team to be savage on their young star?

No would be the likely answer, given that general manager Ross Atkins acknowledged recently that the team presentation would likely be different with a valued superstar in the room to hear it.

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With that behind him, Guerrero said there are no hard feelings. And, most importantly in the context of the weeks and months ahead is the way, he’s feeling great physically.

After an aggressive off-season workout regimen with Nicole Gabriel in nearby Tampa, Guerrero believes he is in the best shape he has been in since 2021. And, if you don’t remember what happened then, it starts and ends with the fact that he blasted 48 home runs in his big league breakthrough.

“First of all, I believe I had a great off-season,” Guerrero said. “I achieved all the goals I wanted to achieve, getting in shape like I used to be in previous years. I really believed I achieved that and I feel great right now.”

In fact, Guerrero said he feels better from the moment he wakes up each day after undergoing an off-season in which he worked at getting stronger and fitter so that “every time I take the field, I can go out there painless and give my best to my teammates.”

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While some fans will wonder why that wouldn’t have been the case every year, it’s important (and fair) to remember that Guerrero is only 24 and still figuring things out. If he has now reached the point where he realized going above and beyond to be in superb condition, both player and team will be the beneficiaries of it.

“Obviously, he’s in great shape physically and it just allows him to be a little bit more durable and bit more fresh every single day,” manager John Schneider said. “He plays a ton. He’s just taken ownership of that off-season and showing up the way that he did is exactly what we were hoping for.”

In that regard, 2023 may have been an eye-opener for Guerrero, as he battled through a season with minor knee and wrist ailments, the product, he believes, of a sub-par winter of preparation the previous year.

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“If I told you I didn’t play with pain in a lot of games, I’d be lying to you,” Guerrero said. “But that’s not an excuse. It’s part of the game. Sometimes you have to be out on the field and grinding,.

“I would blame that on not having the best preparation in the off-season last year.”

As for the arbitration process, which saw Guerrero rewarded with a record deal of $19.9 million, the player was saying all the right things on Tuesday. In other words, he has no hard feelings with the team.

“They reached out,” Guerrero said. “We had a conversation and they pretty much explained to me and I understand that it’s part of the process for both sides.

“But in the end, you turn the page and it’s good. I’ll be ready to go.”

If the fitness revolution pays off in performance, Guerrero believes he can get back to that scintillating season that established him as one of the elite players in the game. It also would allow his critics to quickly forget about the past two seasons, each of which fell short of those lofty standards.

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“In 2021, I prepared myself (for the season) without thinking,” Guerrero said. “I wasn’t concerned about numbers. This year, the same thing. I’m going to not think about putting up any numbers and I think it might work out. Maybe the same numbers. Maybe better.”

Sure, it was only the first full day of team workouts for the Jays, but a fit and confident Vlad Guerrero Jr. certainly creates a feeling of optimism for a group looking for more than the previous two seasons.

“If that was his mentality … 2021 ended up pretty well for him,” Schneider said.

“So if he if he’s got that same approach, that’d be great.”

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