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Reasons to be optimistic about the Blue Jays right now
By Henry Wright
Vladdy has been struggling, yet he’s still one of the best hitters in baseball
I assume most of you remember Josh Donaldson‘s 2015 season, right? One of the best seasons in Blue Jays history that earned him the American League MVP award and revitalized the franchise. A season that was unanimously recognized as elite amongst fans. In that season he posted a 151 OPS+. As of writing this, Vladimir Guerrero Jr has a 155 OPS+, but we’re all talking about how much he’s struggled.
The point that I’m trying to get across isn’t that Vladdy isn’t struggling, because he has been. He hasn’t been hitting up the standards that we expect from a player of his caliber. Despite all this, he’s still one of the best hitters in baseball. I think we all need to recognize how insane that is. I have never in my lifetime seen a player on the Jays put up numbers like Vladdy has and still thought “he’s struggling right now”. That’s just how good he is, and I think we’ve all become a little bit too accustomed to having a generational talent on the team.
He’s also been above average defensively , sitting in the 65th percentile for outs above average per baseball savant. Speaking of baseball savant, his expected stats are still elite. He’s sitting in the 92nd percentile or higher for most hitting metrics, so even if the results we’re expecting aren’t there yet, the numbers say they’re coming.
Again, I won’t deny that Vladdy hasn’t been his usual self, but he’s still been one of the best hitters on the planet, which really shouldn’t be possible.