Ex-GM Blasts Guerrero Jr. For Outrageous Contract Comments

So what does an actual ex-major league baseball general manager feel about a player saying he was given a gargantuan long-term contract based on "past performance" only?

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s shocking comments in a Spanish-language interview that came out on Wednesday have the whole baseball world shaking its collective head. The Toronto Blue Jays' $500 Million Dollar Man said that he was given his 14-year extension "for what I already accomplished", not for what he was going to do over the course of the new deal. 

And while we haven't heard yet from Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins if they feel the same way, we have had the pleasure of hearing from former NY Mets GM Steve Phillips, who, on TSN's First Up on Thursday, said that if he was Vladdy's GM and knew that's the way the player felt about the contract, he wouldn't have given it to him. 

Honestly, if I knew that a player had that mindset when I was considering him, I don't know that I would extend him that offer. If he thought he was getting rewarded for what happened in the past versus paying him to produce in the future, I'm not giving him that contract.

As the general manager, when I'm considering signing a player, his previous performance dictates the price point in value of where I'm going to make an offer. But... I'm not paying him for what he's done, I'm paying him to live up to the expectations of the contract that I'm going to give to him. So I'm not rewarding him for that past performance. I'm paying him with the notion that, based upon your past performance, the value that I see in you is worthy of this offer and I expect you to live up to that moving forward.

You have a responsibility when you have a $500 million contract to live up to that. 

The other thing about Guerrero's interview that bothered Phillips was that he "came across as victim-y" when talking about the fans not being happy when he wasn't performing. 

In totality, Vladdy "didn't read the room real well." 

And to top it off, when given the chance to recant what he had said later in the day after the whole thing blew up, Guerrero doubled down on it, which Phillips said was probably "the most incendiary comment that he made." 

We're all looking forward to seeing if Shapiro and Atkins tap-dance around it all, or confront it honestly, as Phillips did. 

As for the upcoming offseason, with those comments coming out on the day that the Jays were eliminated from the playoffs, it seems like this is the start of an ugly few months.

“It is going to be a bleep show.”

Rob Longley says Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s comments — and the timing of them — have added even more volatility to what was already shaping up to be a massive Blue Jays offseason. 😬@danriccio_ @LindsayDunnTV

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— Off The Roster (@OffTheRosterPod) September 24, 2026

“It is going to be a bleep show," said Rob Longley.