Clement – Guerrero Jr. Chase the Forgotten Crown
The 2026 Toronto Blue Jays might be the most boring team in recent memory. Fans insatiably crave the bat flips of old from Joey Bats, or, going back further, the titanic, third-deck blasts from Carlos Delgado, but they just flat-out aren’t happening anymore.
The chase for the batting title just isn’t anything to celebrate in any domain across MLB anymore. In fact, for perennial batting champion Luis Arraez, it doesn’t even guarantee a contract. In Toronto, and for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the contract isn’t a concern. He is signed for an obscene amount of money long after his playing days are over.
Regardless of how many batting titles Vladdy wins, and he might very well win a handful, his career will be deemed a period of underperformance if he doesn’t pick it up in the home run department. Fans could rally behind Ernie Clement’s pursuit of the title, and, in fact, it might be nicer in the Clement trophy room as a token of hard work and exceeding expectations.
Clement rose to fourth in the American League in batting average at .308, certainly within striking distance of Houston’s Yordan Alvarez at .318, and a true contender to bring Toronto its first batting champion in more than three decades
Still Hope for “Boring” Blue Jays
The funny thing is, the slapstick single-prone Blue Jays are still well within the Wild Card conversation. If they are able to string enough singles together and return to the pestering of fouling off pitch after pitch, they just might put a number on the board that the opposition can’t reach.
Even if they are stacked with power hitters like the lineups fielded by the Braves or Orioles, if the Jays keep slapping a few “ground balls with eyes” and pair them with their quality pitching, they will win. They might not win it all, but they will absolutely compete.
So maybe it’s time for the Vladdy critics to take their foot off the gas and, at the same time, hype up Clement’s efforts. These guys aren’t clearing the fences, at least in the case of Guerrero Jr., nearly enough, but they keep showing up, and little by little, they are getting the job done.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – Player Card
