Ex-Mets GM gives his verdict on what Blue Jays should do after Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s $500 million contract demand

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays were unable to reach a contract extension this offseason, but it appears that the door is still open. Guerrero put a deadline on those contract talks, but his ultimate goal has always been to re-sign in Toronto.

Jim Duqette is a former general manager of the New York Mets, and he recently broke down the contract extension talks on MLB Network Radio. Duquette believes that ultimately, the Blue Jays are going to sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to an extension as the current gap is not that large.

"Vladdy wants $500 million without deferrals, he wants present value of 500. The present value for the Blue Jays is $450 million. If you take that and divide it out over 14 years, it's basically $3.5 million per year.

"That's still a lot of money, $50 million is a lot of money, but it's only $3.5 million per year. So when you reduce it to that small of a number, it feels and seems like you should be able to get there and get this thing done," Jim Duquette said.

This is the first time that numbers have been reported since Spring Training started, but Guerrero has always been open about giving the team a fair deal. Duquette noted that he believes the deal will get done after spreading out the money.

"It's such a smaller contract that they should be able to come to some kind of agreement."

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. contract talks confuse MLB insider

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has maintained that he is simply focused on the 2025 MLB season, and he is no longer willing to talk to the Blue Jays. Buster Olney is an MLB insider and he also expressed confusion about the Blue Jays being unwilling to pay their star player.

"The present-day value of what Vlad wanted was about $45 (million) a year. The Jays signed George Springer five years ago, at age 31, for $25m AAV, and offered Soto closer to $50m AAV. The math does not make sense," Olney wrote on X.

Olney argues that the Blue Jays should get this deal done quickly in order to keep the face of their franchise happy.

"For the Jays, desperately in need of a franchise face, knowledge of the take-down number is worth everything. And they should say yes to it. Today," Olney added.

Now that the numbers have been made public, the Toronto Blue Jays will have to decide how they want to proceed.