Blue Jays report: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was close to promotion before injury

As tough as this pill may be to swallow for Blue Jays fans, it’s all but true – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was close to being promoted to Triple-A before his knee injury caused him to go on the disabled list.

Much to the chagrin of baseball fans everywhere, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was just placed on the disabled list with a minor knee injury. While it’s hardly anything to be overly concerned about, the Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates are making the right decision by being extremely cautious with their superstar prospect.

To add to the disappointment of seeing Vladdy get hurt, it appears as though he was very close to a promotion to Triple-A Buffalo. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi recently appeared on Sportsnet’s At the Letter podcast (hosted by Ben Nicholson-Smith and Arden Zwelling) and had this to say about Guerrero:

"“I would expect the Blue Jays to be ultra-conservative, and ultra cautious with this one. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a bit longer than [four weeks], you have to figure there’s a brief rehab period there, as well. So, it’s not like he’s gonna jump in and get that promotion to Triple-A Buffalo, which was … pretty iminent, is the sense I got before he got hurt. It was a matter of days as oppose to weeks until he got up to Buffalo. At this point you would think he goes back to Double-A, at least for a little bit…”"

There’s a lot to take away from Davidi’s insight here. Firstly, it’s not exactly shocking that Vlad was so close to Buffalo, given his video game numbers so far this year in Double-A. Still, it’s interesting that it was, according to Davidi, a matter of days as opposed to weeks. Considering how slow the front office has been taking this whole process, it’s a little surprising to see that they there were in fact so close to promoting Guerrero.

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The podcast, which can be found in full at this link, has Davidi elaborating on the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. situation, going on to note that the injury is not serious, and that the specific injury he sustained is not often associated with surgery or any structural damage.

Davidi, along with Nicholson-Smith, went on to note that given the conservative rehabilitation timeline, it’s unlikely that Guerrero Jr. appears in the majors at all this year, even in September. As much as it would be fun to see him rake at the big league level, burning a year of service time to have him play for a lowly sub-.500 team is detrimental to say the least.

Even though Davidi didn’t give us much in the way industry insight, it’s still fascinating to know where Shapiro and Atkins stood on Vlad’s promotion prior to his untimely injury. It’s incredibly likely that Guerrero will make the trip to Buffalo shortly after his return to New Hampshire.

Until then, all we can do is watch with bated breath as the young superstar regains strength in his knee. Hopefully, he’ll back to baseball in no time.

Next: Blue Jays: It’s Complicated – A Look at the Current Predicament