There has been a long, controversial history of Major-League Baseball stars from the Caribbean being misunderstood for answers they gave in English. As Spanish speaking athletes, they found themselves in trouble trying to express themselves in a second language. It’s one of the primary reasons the last CBA negotiated with the players’ association has insisted that each club should have an on-staff translator.
Vlad Guerrero Jr. did not have that excuse to fall back on, following his alarming interview, posted on Twitter regarding his failed 2026 season. No excuses. This one was conducted in his first language, with a reporter named Veronica Batista.
Here is a translation into English of the key part of this head-scratching interview that was released on Wednesday and has become even a bigger talking point and more alienating among Blue Jays fans, now that the Blue Jays have been eliminated, following their 4-2 loss to the O’s in Game 1 of a doubleheader.
To those fans and media that defended Vlad as a clubhouse leader, believing it was simply an aberration of a year, offensively, and that, yes, he understood his responsibilities, to those supporters and his teammates, Vlad has now doused them with buckets of spiritual Gatorade that may leave a long-lasting stain on their sporting souls … that may, in fact, never come out.
“The contract I got was based on what I did, not necessarily for what I’m going to do,” Guerrero said in an alarmingly naïve take on lucrative long-term contracts. “I understand why the fans believe it’s the other way around. Sometimes I think that way too, like ‘oh they give me this money and I’m not doing enough’, but you know I try my best and I’m working hard.”
If that Vlad premise of past over future was, in fact, true, if you were paid as a free agent for what you did in the rearview mirror, then pro athletes that reach that stage of free movement would only be negotiating with one team, the one for which they just did what they did. Hey, Vlad, back in April of ’25, with free agency pending, you were being paid for your future, based on past accomplishments and age. Yes, the expectations were that you would hit 40 home runs or more as you improved.
“The fans, I know how they are, when you are doing great, they are 100% behind you,” the Montreal-boen Guerrero Jr. continued. “But when you are not at your best not everybody is behind you, almost nobody supports you. Those are my real fans, the ones that are supporting me all the time.”
A couple of things stand out from this, possibly the biggest verbal gaffe of Guerrero Jr.’s career. Where were his advisors, the people that are supposed to care about him? Where was his father, Hall-of-Fame outfielder Vlad Sr? What about his agents and Jays president Mark Shapiro before the ink had dried, to help him understand in the life-changing moments, what it was that he now represented back in April 2025.
Where was his circle of clubhouse confidants, players and coaches, who should have been aware over the last year and a half and seen how Vlad’s thought process was dangerously spiralling to self-pity. And, if his friends were indeed paying attention, and understood what he really thought of his responsibilities to his team and a half-billion dollars, could they have defused his suppressed anger at his perceived critics.
Were there no warning signs from seven months of shared clubhouse, hotel and charter flight time that Vlad was reaching a point where he needed help from other clubhouse leaders to put his ultra-fortunate life into some perspective. Vlad said between games of Wednesday’s doubleheader that every time he makes an out in a failed at-bat that he thinks about contract. That may be a huge part of his problem.
That constant pressure he puts on himself can surely be fixed. That can only happen if he understands that he was wrong about his original premise of being paid for what he’s already done. The good news is he’s got 13 more years to earn back the fans’ lost affection. The bottom line that the 27-year-old man-child needs to understand that Blue Jays Nation has been more loyal to hime, despite his failures than he would have been subjected to in any other North American market.
Incredibly dumb of him to even broach the topic at all. Whether it's ego or just lack of intellect, he has potentially generated a wave of negativity towards him that only a 40 home run season may fix. This season was disappointing enough and now we have this to end with. So stupid. All he should be saying is 'I'm disappointed with my season and will do everything I can to get better next year'. That's it.