TORONTO – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. he was determined not to report to another Blue Jays spring camp with more weight than he wanted.
Embarrassed and remorseful after arriving out of shape at summer camp in 2020, the Dominican toletero worked aggressively on his fitness in the offseason and said he had lost 42 pounds since last July.
“I came to spring camp out of shape for a couple of years,” Guerrero said through a translator at the Blue Jays camp in Dunedin, Florida. “One day, at my house in the Dominican Republic, I sat down and thought about all this. I decided then that I was going to be ready, that I was going to prepare, that I was going to work very hard for this year.
“I did it, because my main focus is just to be ready and help the team win,” he added.
A thinner Warrior said he feels stronger, faster and more determined.
“I worked very hard on my legs, because I really wanted to trust them. Before, I didn’t get to the rolas. Sometimes, on the plate, I couldn’t stand the arrival of the ball,” the Dominican player said. “I feel faster in every way. I feel great running the bases. Before, I felt a lot of fatigue after taking rolls. Now, I can catch 50, 60 rolls and feel good.”
Manager Charlie Montoyo praised Guerrero for his transformation.
“He met his goals. He had a great season break. All his work paid off. He really looks good,” the manager stressed.
Guerrero, who turns 22 in March, batted 272 with 15 homers and 69 RBIs in 2019, but connected on his last home run on Aug. 16 and looked tired the rest of the season, while losing games for a right knee ailment.
Guerrero lost weight before the spring camp in 2020, but regained it after the COVID-19 pandemic put a break in baseball for several months. Last November, the Dominican told a newspaper in his country that he had apologized to his Blue Jays teammates after reporting overweight at summer camp, when the Major Leagues resumed their campaign.
“The last couple of years, they knew I was coming out of shape. I didn’t prepare very well and I felt at that moment that my teammates needed my apology,” Guerrero recounted.
After switching from third to first base in 2020, Guerrero batted for 262 with nine home runs and 33 RBIs as he participated in all 60 games of the season shortened by the pandemic.
In his winter training sessions in the Dominican Republic and the Toronto resort in Florida, Guerrero said that his teammates, such as Bo Bichette, Cavan Baggio and Teoscar Hernández, motivated him, as well as new hires in the free agency, including the gardener George Springer and the infielder Marcus Semien.
Guerrero has expressed a desire to improve defensively at third base, where he made 17 errors (the team’s highest total) in 96 games in 2019. He said the Blue Jays told him he hopes to be in first and third in 2021 .
Montoyo noted that along with general manager Ross Atkins, he spoke with Guerrero and told him to focus on his efforts to improve at first base.
“My first base is Vlad Warrior and my third is Biggio, but if we face a powerful left-hander or something and I’m looking to give Biggio a day off, then Vladdy could go to third,” the pilot noted. .
“Our main message was,‘ become a Golden Glove first base and then we’ll move you to the third and see what happens, ’Montoyo finished.