Blue Jays records that could be broken in 2022

Vladimir Guerrero Jr

I imagine it comes as no surprise to you that Vladimir Guerrero Jr will constantly be on record watch in 2022. His 2021 season ranked top five in franchise history in slugging, OPS, OPS+, runs scored, total bases, home runs, and many other categories.

The big record to watch is obviously home runs, with the current record being held by Jose Bautista, who hit 54 in 2010. Vladdy came up six short of that in 2021, but only 11 games in 2022 he leads baseball with five homers. 54 is a lot of balls to hit over the fence, but I don’t think there’s a single person that doubts Vladdy can do it.

My offensive stat of choice is usually OPS+ (or WRC+ they’re pretty much interchangeable) and the current franchise record is held by John Olerud, who posted a league-leading 186 OPS+ in 1993. Vladdy had a 200 OPS+ in the first half of 2021, so if he can keep a similar pace up over a full season he would have no trouble breaking that record.

Finally, he should be a serious contender to break Jose Bautista’s position player WAR record of 8.3 in 2011 (per Baseball Reference). It’s still very early, but thus far in the season he’s on pace for almost 12 WAR over a full 162 game season, so once again, if he continues anywhere near that pace, he’ll shatter another one of Bautista’s records.

The Blue Jays have had some pretty phenomenal hitters throughout their history, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr has the potential to top them all, and I imagine that when we look at the record books in a few years, you’ll see his name more than a few times.