Joey Bats. Vinsanity. Vlad Guerrero Jr. All-star love knows no borders

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This article was published 14/06/2021 (1616 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There will be no need for stereotypical Canadian insecurities when it comes to the appreciation of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing in Toronto, Dunedin, Buffalo or anywhere else, the baseball community has embraced him as one of its biggest stars.

Guerrero was announced on Monday as Major League Baseball’s leading vote-getter for next month’s all-star game in Denver. A few hours later, he silenced the Fenway Park crowd with a game-tying solo homer off Red Sox closer Matt Barnes in the top of the ninth inning, his fourth of the Boston series.

The 22-year-old Blue Jay was named on more first-round ballots than Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr. or any of the other perceived faces of the sport. Right now, the six-foot-two Dominican is as big as anyone in the game. The only thing he can’t do is pitch, which is unfortunate because another late-inning meltdown by the bullpen overshadowed his latest heroics in the 2-1 loss.

This season has been a coming-out party for the guy who was one of the most hyped prospects in history and has since proven to be a prolific hitter. Small market, big market, the Guerrero name speaks for itself and when the numbers look this good, the attention comes no matter what logo is on the front of the jersey.

Guerrero and his flirtation with mega-stardom will hopefully put an old and tired narrative to bed once and for all. One that suggests top non-hockey athletes need to play in the United States to receive maximum exposure. That players can be developed here, but if they want to maximize earnings off the field, they’ll need to head south for greener pastures.

This talking point has been used as a cop-out for a while. Vince Carter was arguably basketball’s biggest star when he was defying gravity with a cartoon dinosaur displayed across his chest. In 2011, Jose Bautista not only led players in voting for the all-star game, he smashed the record for most ever received. Bautista was the top vote-getter again in 2014, and the following year he passed the baton to teammate Josh Donaldson.

Blue Jays fans, and Canadians in general, might be guilty of stuffing ballot boxes, but that doesn’t explain all the votes. No, Guerrero’s surge in popularity can be more appropriately tied to the attention he received on his way to the majors, the fame that comes with being the son of a Hall of Famer and the jaw-dropping displays of power he has since showcased on the diamond.

“From what I’ve seen, he has been one of the best players in baseball,” his manager Charlie Montoyo said Monday afternoon. “He deserves to be if not the top vote-getter, then right up there. It’s been fun to watch … With young guys, sometimes you need to be patient. That’s what we are here, we’re patient with our guys. It took Vladdy a couple years and now he’s doing what we thought he was going to do.”

Even before Guerrero started producing at this level, he was making a name for himself internationally. Ask fans what they remember about the 2019 all-star week festivities and the majority will respond with Guerrero’s performance in the home run derby. Never mind that the Dominican didn’t win the event and wasn’t even an official all-star. His record 22 homers still stood out.

If anything, Guerrero was considered a genuine star elsewhere before he was here. While the rest of the world focused on his bloodline, the hype from the minors and the occasional eruptions of power, people around these parts were more concerned about launch angles, poor conditioning and defence.

Well, at least they were.

Those issues haven’t been prevalent in a year when Guerrero took his rightful spot among the top players in the game. The slugging first baseman ranks first in the majors with 22 homers, 56 RBIs and a 1.148 on-base plus slugging. He also leads the American League in batting average (.346) and he entered Monday first in FanGraphs’ WAR (4.1).

Not that we should care, but the American media have taken notice. ESPN, Forbes, The Ringer and fivethirtyeight.com are among the notable outlets to run expanded features on Guerrero over the last two weeks alone. He regularly leads the headlines at MLB.com and his highlights are all over MLB Network. The Dominican doesn’t have his own documentary like Tatis, but give it another year and he just might.

Mega-markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago still likely offer more opportunities to earn money off the field than Toronto does — at least in baseball — but playing for the Jays doesn’t limit exposure. If anything, it brings more by playing for a team that represents an entire country at a time when those games can be viewed by everyone else in the world.

So why then do we as Canadians still feel so insecure about this stuff? What difference does it make how many votes Guerrero or anyone else on the Jays gets? Why do we always look to the States for approval?

In sports, it probably has something to do with how many times fans in this region had their heart pulled out of their chest.

Carter responded to his peak fame by demanding a trade. Chris Bosh said all the right things while simultaneously orchestrating his departure. Roger Clemens turned the city against him, not long after A.J. Burnett did the same by opting out of his deal.

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Knowing guys didn’t want to be here hurt, and fed our inferiority complex. Those were difficult times, but more recent Jays news should be viewed through a different lens.

Bautista signed a new deal months after winning the home run crown in 2010. When he approached free agency six years later, he wanted to re-up again. David Price left town not because he wanted to, but because he wasn’t offered a competitive long-term deal. Similar things could be said about Donaldson and Marcus Stroman.

When the Jays eventually sit down to discuss an extension with Guerrero’s agent, Canada and the difficulties of playing in this market shouldn’t even come up. The only things that are going to matter are the number of years he’s offered and the dollar amount attached to each one.

There’s no need to feel insecure about any of this. Guerrero’s bat has done the talking and based on the numbers, baseball fans all over the world, not just the ones in Canada, have taken notice. Guerrero is a bona fide big-league star, and presumably for at least the next 4 1/2 years he’ll be Canada’s star, too.

Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca