TORONTO, ON - MAY 11: Toronto Blue Jays infielder Ernie Clement (22) is seen in the Blue Jays dugout before an MLB game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays on May 11, 2026, at Rogers Centre in Toronto, ON. (Photo by Mathew Tsang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Toronto Blue Jays have remained in playoff contention thanks largely to a weak field in the American League, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to imagine the team making a deep run without a turnaround for their franchise slugger.
As Vladimir Guerrero Jr. struggles to produce significant slug at the plate, concerns are growing about how the team’s offense can compete without its cornerstone run producer.
“Guerrero is sitting on three homers two and a half months into the season,” the Toronto Sun’s Mike Ganter noted this week. “That’s one more than Davis Schneider and Myles Straw and one fewer than Yohendrick Pinango. All told, eight Jays have more homers than Vladdy so far this year and, while he’s hitting .280 with an on base of .372 that leads the team, the thump just hasn’t been there.”
Though he continues to reach base at an impressive rate and remains one of the most difficult hitters in the lineup to retire, the lack of homers is an abject failure for the team, as a star Blue Jays infielder recently noted.
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As questions continue to surround Guerrero’s power outage, Clement recently offered a candid assessment of what the Blue Jays are seeing from their star first baseman.
“It’s obviously really tough when your three hitter, your perennial All-Star first baseman, your guy who carried you through the playoffs, goes through a tough stretch,” Clement told TSN 1050’s “Overdrive” show. “But he’s going through some stuff and dealing with some failure right now and he’s going to be better because of it. Whenever he turns that corner and gets locked in, we know how special he can be and as his teammates we need to step up.”
The comments offer an interesting glimpse into how Guerrero’s teammates view the situation. While noting confidence that the first baseman would turn a corner sooner or later, Clement put the onus on himself and the rest of the roster to step up and perform better while they await that change.
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“He would be one guy I would say to try to hit a homer,” Donaldson said during an episode of his “Get it Done League” podcast. “I do think he needs to just start envisioning like, let’s look up to the second deck. Let’s look up to the flight deck. Let’s start looking at the flight deck and visualizing balls going that way.”
Conventional wisdom usually calls for slumping sluggers to relax and try not to press when the results they want aren’t appearing. But as Clement and the rest of the team look to pick up their own production, Guerrero might start envisioning more homers at the plate until he starts actually hitting them.
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