The Toronto Blue Jays sit four games out of the final wild-card spot in the American League with five games remaining in the 2026 season as their playoff hopes are all but extinguished.
After coming within two outs of a World Series title in 2025, this season’s edition of the Blue Jays has been a disappointment, sitting fourth in the AL East with a 77-80 record entering Wednesday’s doubleheader with the Baltimore Orioles.
The Blue Jays’ season has been mired with injuries and inconsistent play, but no issue has been more apparent than lack of offence from star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Guerrero is in the midst of his worst offensive season of his career, hitting .263 with only nine home runs and 56 RBI.
“He needs a vacation,” ESPN’s Buster Olney told TSN1050’s First Up on Wednesday. “He needs to go off some place, relax, collect his thoughts, and put 2026 behind him. Then he needs to start the process of what he’s going to do in 2027.”
The 27-year-old first-baseman was a superstar during last season’s playoff run that saw him bat .397 with eight home runs and 15 RBI in 18 playoff games. Guerrero was named the American League Championship Series MVP in the process.
He showed a level of confidence and charisma that the baseball world celebrated throughout last season, after the team rewarded him with a monster 14-year, $500 million contract in April of 2025.
However, Olney believes his willingness to embrace all the pressures that come with being a team’s superstar can also be part of the reason he’s struggled to find his way this year.
“I think emotionally he needs to rebuild,” said Olney. “That great moment during last year’s World Series when he looked at his teammates and said, ‘If you’re nervous, just look at me and I’ll carry you forward.’ Clearly that part of him is a double-edge sword.
“That part of him where he’s thinking that he’s being paid like ‘the guy,’ needs to respond like ‘the guy,’ and produce like ‘the guy.’ You want him to take on the responsibility that’s built into a contract like that, but at some point, it’s clear that the internal pressure that he puts on himself can be debilitating.”
Olney doesn’t have any answers for how Guerrero can overcome these pressures but believes it will be an ongoing project for the six-time all-star and the Blue Jays.
“I’m not smart enough to know how he works past that,” said Olney. “Talking with people, having conversations, he’s got to release some part of that. It worked against him this year in a way that it worked for him last October.”
End of an Era?
Olney also suggested it could be an end of a couple of eras in Toronto with both pitcher Max Scherzer and outfielder George Springer playing the final games of their contracts.
Scherzer, 42, is in his second season with the Blue Jays and has a 3-8 record with a 6.07 earned-run average and 54 strikeouts in 72.2 innings pitched this season.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner is finishing up his 19th season in the big leagues where he has a career 224-125 record with a 3.28 ERA and sits ninth all-time with 3,543 strikeouts.
He is a two-time World Series champion, helping the Washington Nationals win their first in franchise history in 2019 and repeated the feat with the Texas Rangers in 2023.
After helping the Blue Jays make the World Series last season, including pitching in Game 7, Scherzer signed a one-year, $3 million contract to return to Toronto in March, which could mark the end of his career.
“I think for sure [Scherzer will retire] because it’s another year of injuries for him, the number of innings he’s thrown, and his ERA of over six,” said Olney. “It just feels like he has given everything he has to pitching in Major League Baseball. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Blue Jays were open to having Scherzer around when baseball resumes in 2027 to have some depth, but the question is what does Max want.
“My guess is he’s done.”
Springer is in the final season of a six-year, $150 million contract that he signed with the Blue Jays in 2021.
The 13-year-veteran played six seasons in Toronto, batting .261 with 134 home runs and 392 RBI during that span. His Blue Jays’ career is highlighted by a go-ahead three-run homer in Game 7 of the ALCS last season against the Seattle Mariners to send the Blue Jays to the World Series.
Springer, 37, is a four-time all-star and a three-time silver slugger. He heled the Houston Astros win their first their first World Series in franchise history in 2017, where he was named World Series MVP.
The Blue Jays’ DH is batting .251 this season with 15 home runs and 54 RBI and Olney wonders if this could be the end for him as well.
“I know there are moments where you watch him with other players and celebrate with other players, where you kind of wonder if he’s made up his mind, especially with the labour situation [in 2027],” said Olney.
“But, if he gets into the off-season and starts to feel better [physically], I think he would definitely have an opportunity with some team, especially with the lack of right-handed hitting around the game. Someone would give him an opportunity in the wintertime.”
