Blue Jays: The top five Canadian-born Jays in franchise history

5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1.5 bWAR over one season)

Why not begin with arguably the biggest point of debate in my rankings? How could I have included Guerrero Jr. in the top five when he’s only played one season, and it didn’t even go as well as most people hoped it would?

Well, that’s a product of a few things. One, his numbers stack up with most of the players that I considered for this list, so that tells you a little bit about the competition. Secondly though, Vlad Jr. has already made a tremendous impact on the Blue Jays, even if we haven’t quite felt it just yet.

He’s the type of franchise talent that a front office can build around, and when you pair him with the likes of other young core players like Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Nate Pearson, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and more, the Blue Jays could have a very bright future ahead of them. It’s far from a finished puzzle, but the pieces are starting to come together, and Guerrero Jr. is arguably the most important building block.

He had an underwhelming first half in his rookie season, but riding the high of an incredible performance at the Home Run Derby during last year’s All-Star week, Guerrero Jr. was a different hitter in the second half, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of steps he can take in 2020, assuming the season can begin at some point.

He also lands on this list because he was born in Montreal, even if he wasn’t really raised in Canada. For those that don’t know, that would be because his Hall of Fame father was playing for the Expos at the time, which makes it all the more special that his son ended up in Canada as well.