Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Beats The New York Yankees Again And Enjoys It

Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s trips to New York often consist of some notable homers.

There was the night he hit two of his three homers off Gerrit Cole and those were preceded by him reaching 40 homers in a Labor Day blowout during the tediousness known as the 2021 Yankee season.

This weekend he added two more homers, hitting a 412-foot shot into the Toronto bullpen Friday night and a lining a homer into the left field seats Sunday, adding up to two run of the mill Yankee losses.

What made the homers perhaps even more notable was based on comments Guerrero made while sitting in the dugout around 5:45 pm on Friday as his teammates finished up batting practice.

Like many stars who are closing in on free agency, the topic of their interest in playing for a New York team is a popular one. It was a really hot topic when Shohei Ohtani made his annual stopover before the Blue Jays arrived since the two-way star is a free agent after the season.

It was more of a tepid topic this weekend. It existed but it was not a major topic. Nonetheless the question was asked and answered when Guerrero said the following through his translator:

“It’s a personal thing. It goes back with my family. That’s my decision and I will never change that.”

What Guerrero said Friday was simply rehashing remarks he made in November on a Spanish radio show when he said: “I like to play in New York, I like to kill the Yankees. I would never sign with the Yankees, not even dead.”

While it may be a personal thing, it hardly impacts his statistics in the Bronx. Among them is a .614 career slugging percentage, the highest at the 15-year-old stadium amongst any player with at least 100 at-bats. Another is his frequency of homers in New York, which went from one homer in every 12.1 at-bats to one in every 11 at-bats (12 homers in 132 at-bats).

“It seems like he loves playing here,” Toronto starter Kevin Gausman said. “He says he doesn’t like coming here, but he plays pretty well here. Anytime he comes up to bat, we’re all paying attention because he just hits the ball so hard. He’s a guy that kind of likes being the villain when we come here.”

Virtually all of Guerrero’s damage in the Bronx is since the start of the 2021 season. He batted .283 (13-for-46) in his first 11 games at Yankee Stadium and in his last 23, Guerrero is at .302 (26-for-86) with 11 homers and 13 RBIs, numbers that figure to rise in his next visit considering the Yankees being among the many teams unable to consistently figure out how to get him out.

And the latest one seemed to come with more hostility from segments of the crowd, who booed him within seconds of his name being introduced ahead of his four at-bats. His reaction also resembled something from the wrestling heal playbook with the following four steps of pointing skyward, stutter-stepped with a slight hop around third, kissing his wrists and hugging Bo Bichette after crossing home plate, a process that resulted in boos Guerrero seemed to enjoy.

“Reggie Jackson said they don’t boo nobodies,” said Toronto manager John Schneider, a New Jersey native. “So, I think Vladdy kind of worked off of that a little bit. We all know the kind of hitter that he is. A big series from him.”

Jackson made that comment in 1974 when he was in penultimate season with the Oakland A’s in reference to fans knowing how prominent of a player he is. And even if Guerrero did his best to ignore it, he simply shrugged it off with a what are you going do aura of nonchalance.

“Of course, you listen to it but they’re not going to take that home run from me,” Guerrero said. “I’m just going to continue the run the bases and enjoy it.”

And he will continue to enjoy it with the Blue Jays at least through the 2025 season and he will keep the reasoning for his disdain for the Yankees close to the vest, though it could be from when Gary Sheffield was signed after the Yankees showed interest in his father Vladimir Sr. following the 2003 season.

“Since you are a little kid, you dream of playing at Yankee Stadium,” Guerrero Jr. said. “Yankee Stadium is always a stadium you want to go to, you want to perform, you want to hit. That’s the mentality all the time when I come here.”