Buster OlneyMar 27, 2026, 07:00 AM ETClose- Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com
- Analyst/reporter ESPN television
- Author of "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty"
SITTING IN HIS office at Dodger Stadium in January, Andrew Friedman is watching video of the final half-inning of the 2025 World Series, and, as he begins to narrate pitch by pitch for a caller, it's as if he's reliving a disaster barely averted.
"Cutter just off the plate, 1-0," the Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations begins, relaying the ball-strike count of starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. "A splitter he yanks, 2-0. He throws a cutter, 2-1. Then he dots a fastball (outside), 2-2. He comes in with a split, 3-2."
"Then," Friedman says, watching the video, "97 miles per hour, two-seam fastball, runs up and inside, off the plate."
Friedman is describing a pitch almost impossible to hit at that velocity -- way inside, way off the plate, in a place where swings always fail. Two inches out of the strike zone. And yet, during an October run that cemented his status as one of the league's greatest young players, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit it for a double down the line.
"That was all very fitting for him in this series," Friedman says. "That at-bat was incredible."
That Guerrero was left stranded at third as his Toronto Blue Jays lost the World Series couldn't tarnish all that he accomplished last October. He mashed eight home runs in 18 games to go with five doubles and a .397 batting average, just a few of the ridiculous numbers he created.
Only one player in history had more homers in a single postseason -- Randy Arozarena, in 2020. Only eight players have hit four or more homers that gave their team a lead in postseason history -- and Guerrero had three last October.
Yet the statistics don't come close to defining how Guerrero emerged last October, from a young star into something much greater, amplifying the industry respect for his unique hitting ability, his all-round play and the surprisingly extroverted manner in which he guided, pushed and pulled the Jays through the last inning of Game 7.
"Probably the best six weeks of concentration, effort, attitude. That's who [Guerrero] is," Jays teammate George Springer said. "He can do things that people can't do. I've said to him -- I think he's just starting to scratch the surface of how good he's going to be."
Guerrero has always believed in himself, in his own ability to change a game, but in those last weeks, he might have learned something new: In the moments of great stress, against the best, he is at his best -- and if his postseason is any indication, it's a discovery that could launch him into the 2026 season.
GUERRERO'S OCTOBER BRILLIANCE was all the more notable because of his frustrating finish to the 2025 season. "People forget how he was grinding in the last games of the regular season. Hits were hard to come by," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
Guerrero was homerless over his last 21 games in September and hit just .203 after Sept. 9. Toronto held the tiebreaker over the New York Yankees to take the American League East title and a first-round playoff bye, which gave Guerrero and the Jays time to rest and train as they awaited the winner of the Yankees and Boston Red Sox's wild-card series.
One of those days in the Rogers Centre batting cages, Guerrero made a declaration to Hector Lebron, a former minor leaguer who serves as an interpreter for the Jays and a sensei of sorts for their star slugger.
"During the playoffs, I don't want to talk about hitting," he said. "Nothing about mechanics, nothing about adjustments. I'm just going to see the ball and hit it hard."
Guerrero recalled, "When you have a lot of things on your mind, you start listening to a lot of people, and you can get in trouble. I told [Lebron]: 'Don't talk to me about nothing. Just let me play, and I'm going to do my thing.'"
October is a month in which a lot of star sluggers struggle. High-end pitchers throw most of the innings and often swallow up even the best of hitters. Barry Bonds batted .196 with one homer in his first five playoff series. Alex Rodriguez pressed so much that at one point, Yankees manager Joe Torre dropped him to eighth in the lineup.
But even before last year's postseason, Guerrero's history had taught him that he could hit great pitchers. In 2022, he faced the Yankees' Gerrit Cole -- vintage Cole -- and, after hitting two homers, Guerrero smashed a double into the right-field corner. Flummoxed, Cole tipped his cap at the then-23-year-old's talent.
"I believe that when [Guerrero] is at his best, he hits good pitching better than anybody," said Dan Shulman, the Jays' longtime play-by-play man.
Guerrero proved that in the very first inning of Game 1 of the ALDS, when he unloaded his first homer in almost a month, deep to left field, off Luis Gil, returning to the dugout to pull on the Jays' home run jacket he helped popularize. It was as if Guerrero had fired a starting gun: He had two more hits in Toronto's 10-1 win, and the next day, he blasted a fourth-inning grand slam to give the Jays an 11-1 lead.
"The Jays had won the division, but these were the Yankees," Shulman recalled. And Toronto crushed them in the division series -- largely on the back of Guerrero's 9-for-17, three-homer, nine-RBI performance.
"Once hitters like [Guerrero] get a feel, it's over," Don Mattingly, the Jays' bench coach last year, said.
Guerrero has always been known as a confident player. "He believes he can do everything," said Mattingly, "but his self-assuredness seemed to grow in the postseason to where he knew he could impact the game every time he was at the plate."
"I've never seen a guy play with no fear like that," Lebron said. "No pressure."
After the Jays lost Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS at home to Seattle, they fell behind in Game 3 in Seattle, hinting at a possible Mariners sweep. But Toronto rallied for five runs in the third inning, with Guerrero smashing a double in the middle of the rally and homering in his next at-bat for a total of four hits. He had another homer the next day as Toronto tied the series 2-2 with back-to-back wins. In Game 6, with the Jays facing elimination, Guerrero homered -- again.
In an on-field interview after the game, he was asked if he was ready for Game 7. The crowd at Rogers Centre roared, and he paused, grinning. He waited five seconds. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. "You asked me if I'm ready," he said. "I was born ready. I was born ready."
SCHNEIDER HAS KNOWN Guerrero a long time -- they came up together through Toronto's system. Schneider managed the minor league teams that Guerrero played on after being signed as an international free agent by the Blue Jays in 2015, and Schneider was promoted to the major league team the same year that Guerrero made his MLB debut in 2019. After that history together, Schneider had sensed another shift in his star slugger this past postseason.
"You could see a little different Vladimir," Schneider said. "Just in the way he was moving, walking, talking. At that point, it was just solely focused on winning ... He was so laser focused -- his preparation, his attention to detail ... It felt like with each round, he got a little bit more focused, and then a little bit more focused. And he did it on every side of the ball."
Shulman, who called the Blue Jays' entire postseason run for Sportsnet, said that broadcasters who had not seen Guerrero play much in person expressed surprise about how aggressively he ran the bases, and how well he played at first base.
"Vladdy came a long way defensively for me," Mattingly said. "He's got great hands, and with the [shape] he's been in the last two years, he's so much better on his feet and the movement. He's not afraid to make plays."
That defensive prowess was on full display during a vital sequence in Game 4 of the World Series. The Dodgers' Teoscar Hernandez was at second base when Enrique Hernandez chopped a ground ball into the first-base hole. Jays shortstop Andres Gimenez gloved the ball and tried to throw to first, but Guerrero -- seeing Gimenez's throw was going to be too late -- charged toward the ball, moving 7 or 8 feet in the direction of second base. He backhanded a short hop waist high and, looking like a cricket bowler with a throwing motion straight over the top, fired the ball 87.6 mph to cut down Hernandez at third. Hernandez popped up in his slide and looked around with incredulity as Jays third baseman Ernie Clement pointed at Guerrero. On the Fox broadcast, John Smoltz asked, "Can I just say 'wow' about everything that happened right there?"
Guerrero elicited these types of responses from those on the field, as well. At one point, Freddie Freeman turned to him and said, "Would you please stop hitting?"
He would not. He hit a home run off Blake Snell in the first inning of Game 5; he would finish the postseason with more homers (eight) than strikeouts (seven).
By the third inning of Game 7, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had had enough of seeing Guerrero swing the bat, and with a runner at third base in the third inning, he ordered an intentional walk of the slugger. Months later, Roberts recalled how Guerrero had turned toward the next hitter, Bo Bichette, and yelled encouragement to him -- just before Bichette slammed a three-run homer to give Toronto the lead.
"The emotion you saw from him was all sincere, genuine, and that was galvanizing for that ballclub -- he reminds me of David Ortiz," Roberts said. "Obviously, he's a crazy talented player, but one of the things that the postseason brought out in him in the best possible way was him doing everything he could possibly do to win."
A few innings later, as Guerrero walked to that plate against Yamamoto for that epic at-bat in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7, he looked out at the mound and nodded toward the pitcher. Yamamoto lifted his right index finger and touched the brim of his cap, saluting Guerrero -- a moment Guerrero says he'll always hold in "my mind and in my heart." Greatness recognizing greatness.
After the Fall Classic ended, Friedman bumped into Guerrero's agent, Barry Praver. "I can't remember seeing a player on the other side where their desire to win was so palpable," Friedman said to the agent. "Watching his at-bats, watching him in the dugout, with his teammates, it felt so important to him."
The shift in mindset, Lebron believes, changed everything for Guerrero. "It wasn't about numbers," said Lebron. "It became about taking the team to a championship."
WHEN ANY 20-YEAR-OLD walks into a major league clubhouse for the first time -- even a prospect as hyped as Guerrero was when he joined the Blue Jays in 2019 -- he isn't immediately bestowed stature among teammates; a clubhouse leader is constructed over time, as trust and respect slowly manifests, as choices are made and relationships evolve.
By the end of CC Sabathia's career, he was known as one of the best leaders of his generation, but he recalled to ESPN a time early in his fifth season with Cleveland when he was dealing with a nagging hamstring issue, fielding questions about whether he could pitch. Alex Cora, a utility infielder with Cleveland at the time, cornered Sabathia. "These guys are looking at you," Cora told Sabathia. "These guys need you." The words stuck with Sabathia forever, embedding an understanding of his responsibility to the group.
It's a responsibility that Aaron Judge knows well: "You never really know when that time is. It just kind of happens. It really is about what the team needs -- I'm here to help the team. Whenever there's a void, whenever there's a need, I'm here to fill it."
Even when it happens before a player might feel ready, Judge added. "The biggest thing is: Don't shy away from it," he said. "Just accept it. A lot of guys have a tough time accepting that, because they feel like they're still the young guy."
Beneath his thin beard, Guerrero has soft features, a round face with a gentle, welcoming expression and eyes. He's an understated conversationalist, in his first language, Spanish, or in English. Whatever loud is, he's the opposite. He also has been around baseball and clubhouses his entire life. As the son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr., he has experiences that his teammates have not had, an understanding of the game few could ever possess and an ability to hit a baseball that few will ever attain. The contract he signed last spring, for $500 million, is one of the highest ever, assuring that he'll likely be the face of Toronto's franchise well into the next decade. The resolution of his contract well into future, others in the organization believe, forged his standing with the Blue Jays.
Guerrero says he has never considered himself a leader. "I just go and play and do my job at 100%," he said.
He then paused, and smiled, saying, "That's why I got George."
As in Springer, the veteran outfielder who signed with the Blue Jays before the 2021 season. Guerrero says the two best leaders he has played with are Teoscar Hernandez -- "He's like family to me," Guerrero said -- and Springer, who has helped him learn about preparation, consistency and communication. "If I needed to say something, I'd go to George," Guerrero said, "especially because he could speak English more fluently than me. Sometimes, when I needed to say something, I got a little bit shy."
Springer knows something about finding his voice; over his lifetime, he has worked through a stutter, helping kids who have the same issue. As Guerrero's teammate, Springer has encouraged him to speak.
"When he talks, a lot of guys will listen -- everybody will," Springer said. "He doesn't like to do it, for some reason, but I think when he does it, and when you hear him, it kind of makes your hair stand up. It makes you understand he's in it with you."
It was around early September that veteran pitcher Kevin Gausman noticed Guerrero being more vocal, seemingly more confident in his own voice. And in two languages, actually. Late in the season, Lebron encouraged Guerrero and catcher Alejandro Kirk to conduct interviews with English language outlets on their own. Guerrero did this throughout the postseason, and spoke to ESPN in English for this story, too.
Before the last game of the ALCS, the lineups were announced and the national anthem was played, and Schneider recalled that the Jays' dugout was quiet. Guerrero said out loud -- loud enough for everyone to hear, "Hey, if anybody is nervous, then look at me." He kept saying it during that game, and after the Jays prevailed, through the World Series: If anybody is nervous, look at me.
Schneider recalls, "He was in full flow state of 'I'm going to go out there and be the best player that I can be,' and it just carried over game by game."
"It was only a matter of time," Judge said of Guerrero's postseason performance. "An incredible talent. He gets the most from the guys around him, and that encapsulates what a true leader is. I could see the guys around him elevate their game to match him. You see little moments like that and you see the energy shift."
There's no reason to believe that the dominance that Guerrero showed in October will wane in the 2026 season. The World Baseball Classic is inherently a small sample, but Guerrero continued his success in that tournament this spring, batting .444 with eight hits -- including three doubles and two homers -- in 18 at-bats for the Dominican Republic. And he had yet another signature moment. He was on first base when Junior Caminero pulled a ball into the left-field corner. Guerrero raced around third and, following a guiding wave from teammate Julio Rodriguez, he went airborne and dove from foul territory on the third-base side to home plate, scoring a run.
"He's mentally free now," Lebron said. "He knows what he can do in the World Series, he knows how he can make his teammates better. ...
