SIMMONS SAYS: Guerrero’s season was an apology waiting to happen

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The very fact that Vladimir Guerrero Jr.had to be told to apologize — by his dad, his teammates and his manager — tells you just how clueless the Blue Jays sometimes superstar happens to be.

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He has had a dreadful season in what has been something of a dreadful season for the Blue Jays.

His whole season has been an apology waiting to happen.

If the statistic WAR is to be taken seriously — and baseball people certainly view it that way — Guerrero was an absolute failure in this, the first year of his 14-year, $500-million US contract. His WAR was less than 2.

No one is asking him to hit 40 home runs. He has done that only once, and that was in a tainted season.

But to rank 112th in home runs in the American League as of Saturday afternoon, well, that’s horrendous. He is the 25th-ranked first baseman in baseball in WAR numbers. That’s just at his position.

When the Jays signed him to this giant forever contract, he was coming off a season in which he finished second in batting, third in doubles, third in on-base percentage, 12th in home runs, eighth in RBIs, eighth in runs scored, fifth in OPS, sixth in slugging and eighth in runs scored. Great numbers.

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By comparison, this year, coming off a brilliant playoffs, he ranks 24th in hitting, 35th in doubles, 26th in on-base percentage, 112th in home runs, 55th in RBIs, 29th in runs scored, 47th in OPS, 58th in slugging and 29th in runs scored.

All that in a 15-team league. The rather sloppy New York Yankees have 11 players with more home runs than Guerrero. The Athletics, the baseball horse with no name, have nine players with more.

He doesn’t have to hit homers but he does have to hit. That didn’t happen often enough this season, as the .260 batting average he takes into Sunday’s final game is the lowest of his career. This can’t happen again, or the booing just won’t stop.

THIS AND THAT

Blue Jays followers were excited right down to the final week of the season in Baltimore, of all places, in a rather awful race for the final AL wild-card spot. So it seemed like they were close to something. What rarely gets mentioned: The last-place Jays entered play Saturday 19 games behind Tampa Bay, 14.5 games behind the Yankees and 8.5 games behind the Red Sox. In other words, nowhere close to real contention … The previous time the Jays were this bad, there were all kinds of calls for the firing of general manager Ross Atkins. There is no call for that now, nor should there be … The Jays wasted a terrific bullpen season from Louis Varland, Tyler Rogers, Spencer Miles, Mason Fluharty and Braydon Fisher. This was one of the deepest, strongest bullpens in club history … More WAR: Last year, Guerrero, Alejandro Kirk, Ernie Clement and George Springer combined for a WAR of 15.1. This year, the total was 4.9 … Springer had an all-over-the-place six seasons with the Jays. This is likely the end as free agency looms. Springer was enormous in the Jays’ 2025 season and brought a heartbeat to the club every day, even in down years. Even with his body pounding him on many days, Springer found a way to keep on fighting. He will be appreciated here long after his playing days are over … In the World Series year, the Jays finished first in the AL in runs scored, hits and batting average, sixth in home runs and second in OPS. This season, they will finish 15th both in runs scored, and homers, and 13th in OPS … Props to Kazuma Okamoto on a terrific first big-league season. Okamoto is sixth in the AL in homers heading into the final game Sunday, and eighth in RBIs. Nobody had that on their bingo card in April … The AL West may be the worst division in baseball history. As of Saturday morning, the five teams were 84 games under .500 with a total run differential of minus-473 … Yordan Alvarez will not win the Triple Crown. The Astros slugger will win the batting title but will likely finish second in homers and no better than second in RBIs.

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HEAR AND THERE

Clearly geography was not GM John Chayka’s favourite subject in school. Explain to me how flying your team to Arizona and back — 10 or so hours of flying — gets your Maple Leafs ready to play back-to-back games to open the season on Tuesday night … Funny to listen to Mats Sundin’s talk about the importance of chemistry and having a good dressing room. What he hasn’t told anyone in his new position as Director of Smiling is that the best Leafs team he played on — the one that should have gone to the Stanley Cup final in 2002 — was a deeply divided team with personalities that did not mesh … This is why you can’t predict what Auston Matthews will do this season. In 10 NHL seasons, he has scored 60 or more goals twice, 40 or more four times, 30 or more three times and in the 20s just once. It’s not exactly a John Tavares straight line but, in fairness, he has scored at a 93-point pace in his career as a Leaf … One huge difference between Leafs captains Sundin and Matthews: In his first 10 seasons in Toronto, Sundin missed just 24 games. In Matthews’ first 10 seasons, he has missed 93. Matthews, however, has outscored Sundin by almost 10 points a season … First look at Gavin McKenna and it’s easy to see why he was the first pick in the draft. Like most great players — and he’s going to be that — he has his own game. His own way of doing things. And that can be the beauty of hockey greatness. Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby can all be the greatest ever and none of them play anything at all alike … As rookies, Connor Bedard had 61 points and Macklin Celebrini 63. But neither of them had the benefit of playing with William Nylander and either with Tavares or Matthews. McKenna may not score as many as 60 points this season, but he does have an opportunity few high draft picks ever get … I asked three GMs to rate the following centres 1-2-3: Matthews, Jack Eichel, and Sasha Barkov. Two GMs said it was too close to call. One had Eichel first, Barkov second, Matthews third.

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SCENE AND HEARD

This is how valuable a healthy Chris Tanev can be for the Leafs. In his past 151 games with three different teams, Tanev’s teams accumulated 204 points when he played. That’s a 110-point pace over an 82-game schedule. And at $4.5 million a year with the salary cap exploding, he’s an absolute bargain if he can play 65 or more games … In ESPN’s rankings of NBA players, the network had Kawhi Leonard 15th and Scottie Barnes 17th. Both should be higher. Nikola Jokic was rated first and Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander third … Sound familiar? I wrote this in 1981, quoting the late player agent Norm Caplan: “Everything is loaded in favour of NHL players in the U.S. I feel terrible for the players in Canada and terrible for the Canadian teams. They’re dead as of now.” For the record, that was 45 years ago when there were no teams in Florida or Texas … Only five teams in the stacked Atlantic Division can make the playoffs. I suspect Florida, Tampa Bay and Montreal are pretty much sure things. And Buffalo is not far behind them. That’s leaves Boston, Ottawa, the Leafs and possibly Detroit fighting for the final wild-card spot. Detroit, before Steve Yzerman was fired and before Dylan Larkin demanded to be dealt, finished with 92 points, going 2-8 in its final 10 games. Had the Wings gone 5-5, they would have made the playoffs … With all the managerial openings coming in this, Major League Bsaseball’s firing season, shouldn’t there be a place for the Canadian Rob Thomson, who had a .568 winning percentage with the Philadelphia Phillies?

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AND ANOTHER THING

This has been a great season for likely National League MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong. He’s flirting with WAR figures that are normally reserved for Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and yes, Aaron Judge … Why are the Mets the Mets? They traded a 19-year-old Crow-Armstrong to the Cubs at the deadline in 2021 and got next to nothing for him … What a wonderful ending for Justin Verlander in Detroit. His daughter ran out to the mound in the sixth inning to remove him from his last major-league game … I’ve known a lot of people who loved playing in the NHL, but I don’t know If I‘ve ever met anyone who loved it more than Steven Lorentz, who was placed on waivers by the Maple Leafs. Here’s hoping this solid winger gets a gig with another NHL team. He’s someone worth cheering for …. Worth remembering: In many of Bob McCown’s final podcasts, he was urging the Blue Jays to sign Pete Alonso. Smart guy, that McCown … What a poignant, loving tribute Mitch Chuvalo eulogized his father, George, with on Monday afternoon …. Anybody who has ever watched a mother in a hockey arena on the day her son or daughter scores their first goal can relate to Taylor Swift getting excited on Monday Night Football when Travis Kelce scored a touchdown. The emotion and excitement was pure. There was no need for any criticism … Aaron Rodgers was just about the finest throwing quarterback I’ve ever seen live. Now he just looks like a guy who has hung on just a little too long … Happy birthday to Mike Schmidt (77), Terry Greer (69), Serena Williams (45), Clara Hughes (54), Daniel and Henrik Sedin (46), Steve Kerr (61), Chris Kunitz (47), Asuka (45) and Randy Bachman (83) … And hey, whatever became of Duron Carter?

ssimmons@postmedia.com

(Simmons is Canada’s longest-serving sports columnist)

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