Will Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Lead the Toronto Blue Jays to Playoff Success? MLB Odds, Props
“Last year was the trailer, this year is the movie.” Those words by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at spring training caused a stir, but as the Toronto Blue Jays gear up for their best-of-three American League wild-card series against the Seattle Mariners, the power-hitter will finally have an opportunity to back up the big talk. Will Guerrero lead the Blue Jays to playoff success?
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Toronto Blue Jays vs. Seattle Mariners
The Toronto Blue Jays finished with a 92-70 record in the regular-season and claimed the top American League wild-card spot and home field advantage. They’ll face a Seattle Mariners team that had a nearly identical 90-72 record. Seattle claimed the regular-season series 5-2. Toronto took two of three games at home in May before being swept in a four-game series in Seattle in July. The Jays were outscored 21-11 in the seven games.
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Seattle Mariners Game 1 Preview
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The Toronto Blue Jays are stacked with talent in the form of players like pitcher Alek Manoah, shortstop Bo Bichette and leadoff hitter George Springer, but the face of the franchise is first baseman/designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The 23-year-old Guerrero is arguably the best player on the Blue Jays roster (Manoah is also in that conversation), so his success in this series will likely determine if Toronto moves on.
Guerrero hit the 30-homer plateau for the second consecutive year this season and he was three hits shy of the century mark in RBIs for a second straight year. One concern heading into this series is Guerrero’s lack of playoff experience, which amounts to a total of two wild-card games in 2020. In those games, Guerrero had seven at-bats, finishing with just one hit and four strikeouts.
The bigger concern regarding Guerrero right now, however, is an ice-cold end to his regular-season. Over the last month of the season, Guerrero had a .235 batting average, .290 on-base percentage and .390 slugging percentage. For comparison those numbers were .274/.339/.480 for the season and .284/.358/.504 for his career.
Still, this is a player who can be dominant when he’s on his game and he is coming off a season in which he hit 32 home runs and had 97 RBIs this season. If the Blue Jays are going to win this series, Guerrero will need to step up.