Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: Don’t assume he’ll always be the highest-paid player in Toronto

In 2025, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed a 14-year contract with the Blue Jays. The face of the franchise, who was just months away from free agency, decided to commit to Toronto before hitting the market.

The Blue Jays gave him $500 million good reasons to stay, and he accepted.

This means that Vladdy is currently the highest-paid player on the Blue Jays. He will now earn just over $35.7 million per year until 2039.

Logically, one might think that this sets a ceiling on annual salaries in Toronto… except that according to Ben Nicholson-Smith, who answered questions from fans on Reddit, that's not necessarily the case.

According to him, when the time is right, there's a guy who's going to earn a bigger annual salary than Guerrero Jr.

Hi folks… Reddit AMA coming up at 1 p.m. ET… join us here! https://t.co/qCh36gBs6C pic.twitter.com/314n4yzIHS

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) January 30, 2026

And of course, all of this brings us back to the Kyle Tucker saga. We know that the outfielder was being targeted by the Blue Jays, who offered him a long-term contract with an annual salary of $35 million. Or, in other words, an annual salary lower than that of Guerrero Jr.

So we can assume that, in reality, the Jays didn't see Tucker as a guy who deserved more money than Vladdy. The club is willing to go above and beyond that value, but not for just anyone.

If Tucker didn't get more money than Vladdy, it wasn't to respect the salary structure, it was because they didn't want to give him a higher amount, basically.

It will be interesting to see over the next few years if any player in Toronto will exceed that amount. We know that the club is in the running for all the big names on the market and that it will take a chance if a big name becomes a free agent.

Next year, for example, Tarik Skubal will be the big name on the market. I don't necessarily see him ending up in Toronto… but one can imagine that for a player of his caliber, the Jays would be willing to go beyond $35.7 million per year. That's the key takeaway from all this.

This content was created with the help of AI.