{"id":826039,"date":"2026-07-25T22:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/826039\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T22:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:35:09","slug":"vladimir-guerrero-jr-pleads-to-fans-to-be-patient-as-struggling-toronto-blue-jays-look-to-get-back-into-playoff-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/826039\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladimir Guerrero Jr. pleads to fans to \u2018be patient\u2019 as struggling Toronto Blue Jays look to get back into playoff race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/a> is asking fans of the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> to \u201cbe patient\u201d despite the 2025 American League champions sitting well out of the playoff picture with just over two months remaining in the regular season. <\/p>\n

Guerrero Jr., who\u2019s in the midst of the worst season of his MLB career, spoke to reporters on Saturday afternoon ahead of Toronto\u2019s game against the Boston Red Sox<\/a> at Fenway Park. <\/p>\n

\u201cBe patient. I know things are not going the way we want it, but I can promise all our fans every time we go out there, we take the field to win the game,\u201d said Guerrero Jr. through team interpreter Hector Lebron. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re humans, and sometimes things don\u2019t happen the way you want it, regardless of your preparation. That\u2019s baseball. But I can really promise them, we\u2019re going to work. We\u2019re trying to win some games. I know they\u2019ve always been there when we\u2019re winning, but we need our fan base to be there right now. But because never know, things can change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays lost the series opener to the Red Sox on Friday night by a score of 6-4, dropping their record to 47-57 on the season after losing six of eight games since returning from the All-Star break last Friday. <\/p>\n

Toronto sits 6.5 games behind the Cleveland Guardians<\/a> for the third and final wild card spot in the American League with a total of six teams still to jump. <\/p>\n

With 58 games remaining in the regular season, the Jays would need to post a 34-24 record the rest of the way to finish .500, a mark which would still likely not be enough to make the postseason. <\/p>\n

The Blue Jays have been one of the worst hitting teams in baseball this season, sitting last in runs, RBIs and OPS. Guerrero Jr. is hitting .262 with six home runs, 42 RBIs and a .697 OPS over 99 games in 2026 and has not hit a homer at Rogers Centre. <\/p>\n

He acknowledged his lack of output at the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know the home runs aren\u2019t there yet, but with a little click, they will be there at the end of the season. My focus is to keep doing that and keep hitting the ball hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Guerrero Jr., who is playing in the first season of a massive 14-year, $500 million contract, has been a shadow of the slugger that led the Blue Jays to Game 7 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> last October. <\/p>\n

Guerrero Jr. has never finished with an OPS lower than .772 (rookie season in 2019) during his eight-year MLB career. <\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is asking fans of the Toronto Blue Jays to \u201cbe patient\u201d despite the 2025 American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[712,49,48,82,75156,104630],"class_list":["post-826039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-920245"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}