Former Blue Jays superstar gives Vladdy high praise

Toronto Blue Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. just completed the kind of season we had all been waiting to see since his breakout 2021 MVP-runner-up campaign. Despite falling short of the 200-hit mark after going hitless in the team's season finale on Sunday, Guerrero Jr. has nothing to be ashamed of. His 199 hits are nothing to sneeze at, although it would have been yet another impressive addition to his 2024 resume.

While Blue Jays fans and media sit back and marvel at what Guerrero accomplished this year, our platitudes only go so far, most of us having never strapped on the cleats anywhere close to the majors — heck, few of us made it past Little League. But there's one Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fan whose praise carries a lot of weight.

Former Blue Jays superstar Edwin Encarnación gives Vladdy high praise

Former Blue Jays superstar slugger Edwin Encarnación, now a special assistant with the team he helped take to the playoffs twice, had high praise for the current Blue Jays slugger after Guerrero eclipsed the 100-RBI mark and closed in on 200 hits last week, as reported by Sportsnet's Shi Davidi.

“Hey, you can see in the game, you count with one hand how many guys do that [get 100 RBI],” said Encarnación, per Davidi. “What he's been doing is impressive. I look in the mirror when I used to play, I know I got 100 RBIs, 30 homers, but 200 hits, too? Oh man, that's crazy. It's something the fans have to enjoy. The team, we're very happy with where we are with Vladdy. He's an unbelievable player, an unbelievable hitter.”

Encarnación has been working with Guerrero all season, and who better to learn from than the man who hit so many home runs in Toronto that his home run trot took on a life of its own. The “Edwing” became an iconic rallying point for Blue Jays fans, with parrots popping up all around Rogers Centre.

Now 41, Encarnación played 999 games over eight seasons in a Blue Jays uniform, racking up 977 hits, 239 home runs and 679 RBI while in Toronto. Most of that production came after his 2012 breakout season and he went on to register 100 RBI in four of the next five seasons with the Blue Jays (he had 98 the only year he didn't reach the century mark). He never had 200 hits, though.

Encarnación fully believed in Guerrero Jr.'s ability to have a season like 2024

Guerrero, who's still just 25 years old despite having just completed his sixth MLB season, did everything at the plate this year. Batting .323, he had the second-highest average in the majors. He also posted the sixth-highest OPS at .940. And don't forget about his 30 home runs, the third time reaching that plateau in his career, 103 RBI and 98 runs scored on an offensively lacking Blue Jays team.

Even more impressive is what Guerrero did after failing to hit more than five long balls through the end of May. He hit for average early on, but the home runs weren't there. Then something clicked in June and he hit 25 the rest of the way, although Encarnación was never worried.

“I remember the first two months, he made an adjustment with his contact point and that's when I realized, he's coming," Encarnación said of Guerrero's early-season power outage, per Davidi. "He needed to do that little adjustment, because he was putting the ball in play, but he just was a little bit late, and when he changed that I knew it was going to come."

“Now he's catching the ball a little bit more in front. When you're ahead in the count, you want to get in front of the ball. That's the adjustment he made and Vladdy is an unbelievable hitter. A natural hitter. I knew at the beginning of the season that things are going to change because he can do that.”

High praise, indeed.