Shohei Ohtani was not on a plane. Neither did Juan Soto. But, after years to wait in vain on the Tarmac, Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro saw the Blue Jays plane landing in Boston with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. finally having a long -term contract in pocket.
Despite the deadline for contractual negotiations imposed by Vlady He himself, the official start of the spring camp, we still expected that the latter continues to negotiate his pact once the season started, and that's what happened. If we can call it a negotiation, because Junior had exactly what he wanted.
The duo Shastkinsas my colleague Charles-Alexis Brisebois named this morning, therefore succeeded in a monumental feat, or to keep the face of the franchise for probably the rest of his career, while sending the first positive message to its fans base for a very long time.
When Guerrero “would have ended” the contractual negotiations at the start of the training camp, the atmosphere was at its lowest in Toronto, the day of the marmot pointing the tip of his nose. Atkins and Shapiro would therefore continue their catastrophic journey for years, giving hope of great achievements to finally fail each time. Ohtani, Soto, Corbin Burnes, the list is long.
But now, the two protagonists can put all this behind them, the latter may have acted under the effect of fear. But sometimes fear is a good thing and it turns out in this case.
However, will it be enough to keep their jobs?
The 2025 campaign will tell us a lot about the continuation of things. Because it is not because Vlad Jr. is now a member of the Jays for life that it repairs the expensive errors of the past, the most expensive error having been not to put Guerrero Jr. under contract much earlier in his career, when it did not cost $ 500 million.
An air change can only be beneficial for Toronto training.
- Adam Ottavino returned to New York.
- He was injured, but managed to catch the ball.
- Rafael Devers is getting the hair of the beast.
