Huzzah, baseball friends! Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has been the best and most exciting and most popular player in the Toronto Blue Jays organization for more than a year, is now finally good enough to join the Toronto Blue Jays:
Yung Vlad will make his debut Friday, when the Blue Jays open a home series agains the Oakland Athletics. Having successfully manipulated his service time (aided by a convenient oblique injury) in order to squeeze an extra full year of team control, the Blue Jays coincidentally now evidently feel that Vlad has achieved the “incredible foundation” and “physical aspect” that GM Ross Atkins described as the goals of Vlad’s springtime in Triple-A. Count me among those who are shocked—shocked!—that he’s developed so quickly.
That Friday game immediately becomes the most interesting single game of this regular season to date, and probably the most interesting April baseball game since, well, last April, when Shohei Ohtani was dazzling baseball fans as a rookie for the Angels. Also, here is a very sweet thing that will make your heart swell: