Jeff Passan says Vladimir Guerrero turned down 'a lot of money' from the Blue Jays

While Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s lack of a contract extension is one of the biggest stories in baseball, there's still a lot of gaps that need to be filled in when it comes to how we got here.

The biggest gap is the amount of money the Blue Jays offered Guerrero.

In speaking with the media on Tuesday, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said the Blue Jays offered Guerrero a "record setting" contract that would have made him the highest-paid player in franchise history, that just means it was more than the $150 million contract they inked George Springer to prior to 2021.

We got a little bit more clarity to what that meant Wednesday thanks to perhaps the most well-respected insider in baseball.

Juan Soto changed the dynamics of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s contract extensoion, per Jeff Passan

On Wednesday, ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan went on Sportnet 590 The FAN's Blair and Barker to discuss Guerrero's free agency, where Passan let go some interesting tidbits about the kind of money that was on the table.

"I've heard different numbers, and I don't know if any of them are accurate, but I believe Vladimir Guerrero Jr. turned down a lot of money. Like a lot," Passan said.

And how much is a lot? Well, according some previous reporting from MLB.com's Keegan Matheson, any contract for Guerrero Jr. likely would have started in the $400 million range.

And, according to Passan, it seems like the Blue Jays front office began to ask itself if it was worth offering that much money for a player who has some defensive limitations.

"There just has to come a point as an organization where you look at that reality of the situation and that's that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. plays first base," Passan said.

While Guerrero is a former Gold Glove winner, he was worth -9 Outs Above Average last year and has been worth -50 across his career. His defensive runs saved value is a bit better than (-1 last year) but it seems clear that he's going to become a near full-time designated hitter at some point sooner rather than later.

But that lack of defensive value might not matter as much as a rising tide lifting all boats.

"Despite what Vladdy said yesterday I do think Juan Soto changed the dnyamic a little bit. If you're giving the most favorable version of the Vladimir Guerrero objective assessment, you're saying he's a guy who's in his mid-20s and is one of the best hitters in baseball but is also probably going to move to DH eventually... but the bat is so special it doesn't matter. That sound like Juan Soto," Passan said.

Like Passan said, Soto is a generationally talented hitter (160 OPS+ across his first MLB seasons) who has severe limitations in the field (-28 career Outs Above Average).

Passan then went on to say that it makes sense that Guerrero would then look toward getting a contract like Soto's compared to that of Pete Alonso, who got a two-year, $54 million contract from the Mets. Guerrero and Alonso's potential paydays have been linked ever since they made their debuts during 2019.

But it's clear that Guerrero is in a different tier than Alonso considering he's younger and a better overall hitter (.288 career batting average compared to Alonso's .249).

And even if Guerrero isn't worth the $700 million that Soto signed for, it's also clear that he's a player that Toronto should value in the $400 million range due to the benefit he brings to the team both on and off the field — something Passan made painful aware during his interview.

"After the pain of Ohtani and Soto after all of the things that Toronto Blue Jays fans have been put through... when you have a guy who is a homegrown Canadian citizen who says he wants to be a Toronto Blue Jay, it has to be the guy you get done," he said.