Vladdy Jr. focusing on pitch selection, not payday

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Selectivity is the key word for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. entering 2023.

Unable to match his MVP-type numbers from 2021 last year, the Toronto Blue Jays star has come into camp this spring with a renewed focus on trusting his immense talent and swinging at the right pitches.

If that pitch never comes, he’ll get back to taking his walks in bunches.

The majority of players across the league would be happy with 32 home runs and a .274/.339/.480 slash line.

But everyone — Vladdy Jr. included — knows the ceiling is much, much higher than that after the monster line of .311/.401/.601 and 48 homers he painted onto the back of his baseball card two seasons ago.

Guerrero admitted he was chasing the same type of numbers right from the get-go last year, and he’s learned from it.

“When you’re a ballplayer, you’re trying to get better every year,” Guerrero Jr. said at his locker Tuesday on the first official day of position player workouts. “So, of course, you know the numbers I put up in 2021, and it’s natural that the next year I wanted to have an even better year. That’s why, I think, everything happened, trying to put up better numbers last year than 2021. Unconsciously, you get anxious and I think that was the key for the numbers I had last year.”

His desire to do damage rather than swing at the right pitches showed up in the numbers.

The walk rate dipped from 12.3 per cent in 2021 to 8.2 per cent last year, a difference of 28 free passes.

Whether it was chasing breaking balls off the plate from time to time or getting sawed off inside, there were many instances of Guerrero simply trying to do too much instead of taking his walk and letting the Jays lineup do the rest.

There’s a clear focus to get back to simply accepting he won’t get many pitches to hit at times, especially when the 23-year-old is in a groove.

“Just letting the game come to him,” Jays hitting coach Guillermo Martinez said of the message this spring. “I think he was chasing numbers and if you chase numbers you chase a lot of things and that’s what was happening in 2022. The game came to him so easy in 2021 because he just let it happen and pretty much just trusted himself.”

Once again, there’s a renewed focus as well on getting the ball in the air.

After dropping his groundball rate from 54.6 per cent in 2020 all the way down to 44.8 per cent in his monster 2021, it shot back up just as quickly last year, settling in at 52.1 per cent.

There were many games where Vladdy would scorch two or three balls into the ground at 100-plus mph and they’d be outs.

In the air, that’s damage done.

For Guerrero, it was about being jumpy in the box and not as selective as he needed to be.

“It was more about getting anxious,” Guerrero Jr. said. “I was very anxious last year, especially during my at-bats. I’m trying to get better on that.

“Just making sure to make adjustments every at-bat, every pitch, and work on those little things that I know I can get better at and, of course, help my team win this year,” he added.

It’s not about attempting to take more walks, it’s about being OK with them.

Last year, nine players across baseball walked more than 80 times.

There’s really no reason that Guerrero, as feared as he is, shouldn’t be in that range each and every season.

In 2021, he took 86 free passes.

“I think the key to that is you have to create a plan and that starts here in spring training,” Guerrero Jr. said. “That’s what I’ve been doing with Guillermo, working on that plan.

“I don’t want to say that I’m going to take more walks because if I think that way I probably lose some of the aggressiveness from my swing. That’s why I don’t want to say I’m going to go out there and try to walk, I’m just going to look for the pitch that I’m really looking for in that at-bat and still be aggressive. If it’s not there, I’ll take my walks.”

After the wild-card loss to the Seattle Mariners, Guerrero took some time off to refresh and reflect.

“It’s hard — very hard,” he said of the postseason ouster. “It’s in the past but it’s still very hard and you try to get it out of your system, but of course you see videos and things like that. It’s a new year and we don’t talk about it in the clubhouse this year. We move forward.”

When it comes to moving forward individually, Guerrero Jr. and the Jays were able to get a one-year, $14.5-million deal done to avoid arbitration.

That number could put him in line — provided he produces at a similar level — for $20 million or so next year and then an additional $25-plus million in 2025, his final two years of arbitration before free agency beckons.

He’s not worried about his contract or an extension at this point.

“I’m leaving everything to my team, my agents,” Guerrero Jr. said. “I’m going to concentrate on hitting fastballs and curveballs and they’ll take care of the rest. I don’t want to be thinking about that right now.

“I’m going to do my job, my agency is going to do their job, and the time will come.”