{"id":860843,"date":"2026-09-26T01:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T01:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/860843\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T01:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T01:58:15","slug":"blue-jays-star-vladimir-guerrero-jr-apologizes-for-comments-about-his-500-million-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/860843\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. apologizes for comments about his $500 million contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO, ONT \u2013 Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. apologized Friday for comments he made during a Spanish language interview about his $500 million, 14-year contract<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In the first season of the big deal, Guerrero said during an interview with the Dominican television program \u201cGrandes Ligas\u201d that he was being paid for what he had done in the past, not what he was going to do in the future. A clip of the interview for a show to be aired Oct. 4 became public on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t pay me because I\u2019m going to hit 40 every year,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cThey paid me for what I already accomplished. People are confused about that, but I think the same way they do. Like, sometimes I even say to myself \u2018Bro, they gave you all that money and you\u2019re out here doing nothing.\u2019 I try.\u201d<\/p>\n

After days of criticism, Guerrero was contrite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main reason I\u2019m here is because I regret my comments the other day,\u201d Guerrero said Friday through a translator. \u201cI feel from my heart that my fans, my teammates, they needed an apology from me and that\u2019s what I\u2019m here for. Obviously, I\u2019m also here because I\u2019m just going to tell everyone that I\u2019m going to continue to keep working hard to make my contract a great one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just gave it some thought and I felt like the comments I made the other day is not what I really wanted to say, and I really feel that everyone, my fans, everyone deserves an apology from me and that\u2019s the main reason I\u2019m here today.\u201d <\/p>\n

A six-time All-Star, Guerrero entered Friday with a .285 career average, 192 homers, 647 RBIs and an .840 OPS.<\/p>\n

He hit eight postseason home runs last year to help the Blue Jays reach Game 7 of the World Series, which it lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 11 innings.<\/p>\n

Guerrero has slumped to a .263 average with nine home runs and 56 RBIs this year, slowed by a back injury, concussion and right hamstring tightness. His home run and RBI totals are career lows for a non-shortened season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a disappointing year for me,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t help my team more to accomplish our goal, which is hard for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerrero\u2019s deal is the third-largest in total dollars behind Juan Soto\u2019s $765 million, 15-year contract with the New York Mets<\/a> and Shohei Ohtani\u2019s $700 million, 10-year agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guerrero\u2019s contract also includes a record $325 million signing bonus that protects the money from a possible work stoppage.<\/p>\n

Guerrero said he had spoken to his father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, and apologized to his Blue Jays teammates.<\/p>\n

Asked about his comments after Wednesday\u2019s loss at Baltimore, which eliminated Toronto from postseason contention, Guerrero had said he stood by his remarks.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO, ONT \u2013 Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. apologized Friday for comments he made during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[7842,363,3956,99,12000],"class_list":["post-860843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-juan-soto","tag-mlb","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}