It has not been a banner year for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays.
Things have taken a drastic turn for the worse since Toronto pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to the brink in the World Series last October, and Guerrero’s 2026 struggles have been at the centre of it all.
Guerrero has been unable to find the superstar level of play he showed in the postseason that earned him ALCS MVP honours, and now owns an OPS of just .687 with six home runs in over 400 at-bats this year.
To this point, the 2026 campaign has been a failure for both Guerrero and the Blue Jays, who were forced to sell off cornerstone pieces from last year’s run like Kevin Gausman, Daulton Varsho, and Jeff Hoffman before the trade deadline.
Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins, who handed out a 14-year, $500 million contract extension to Guerrero last April, has had a front-row seat to the first baseman’s struggles this season and attributes the down year to mechanical issues that have now begun to affect his confidence levels at the plate.
“I think timing has been impacted, rhythm, which impacts confidence,” Atkins said of Guerrero’s lacklustre season in an appearance on TSN1050’s OverDrive. “It is such a fine motor skill to be able to have that synced up.
“Your timing starts to change just a hair, then finding that rhythm to be synced up to be in powerful positions to have enough room to still cover a breaking ball when you’re on time for a fastball is one of the hardest things to do in sport. If that starts to get a little out of sync, that can start to impact things that are going on in your brain.
“Stopping, recreating, or getting back to that pattern that is appropriate isn’t just a click of a button. It isn’t us just showing him that pattern, it’s a feeling. He’s working towards it, I know he’s going to find it…hitters say it just takes one swing. I’m not expecting it to be a light-switch turnaround for any offensive player, but I do believe things can happen quickly.”
While Guerrero has failed to reach the heights of last season, the lineup as a whole has seen regression year over year.
Over the offseason, Atkins supplemented a World Series roster with the additions of Dylan Cease, Kazuma Okamoto, and Tyler Rogers in the hopes of making another deep postseason run.
Cease is currently among the favourites for the American League Cy Young with a 2.41 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 119.1 innings, Okamoto leads the team in both home runs and RBI, while Rogers has pitched to a miniscule 1.62 earned run average in 52 appearances this year.
Atkins has by and large hit on all three signings, yet Toronto remains in the basement of the AL East heading into the stretch run with a 53-61 record.
“I think that about the preparation, I think about our adjustments, and something that I missed,” Atkins said. “I haven’t found it yet, but I think that’s where I spend my time and energy. What did I miss in terms of preparation, in terms of deployment as the league is constantly adjusting.
That’s where I spend, not all of my time and energy because I have other things to be worried about, but a very big chunk of time and energy these days.”
Toronto finishes off a three-game series against the Houston Astros on Wednesday, with deadline addition Jameson Taillon (2-6, 5.92 ERA) getting the ball in his team debut for the Blue Jays
