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"We want to make sure he's the best possible third baseman, best possible hitter he can be," Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said.

Blue Jays top prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. unlikely to start season in MLB, GM says

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. likely won't be the Blue Jays' opening-day third baseman.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said the most likely scenario for Toronto will be for the team to start Brandon Drury at third base instead. He did say though that could change over the next month.

Guerrero is a consensus top prospect in baseball and is coming off of a year in which he hit .381 with 20 home runs and 78 RBIs across two levels.

The 19-year-old is a career-.331 minor league hitter with a .414 on-base percentage across 1,030 at-bats.

He did, however, miss more than a month in June last season with a knee injury. When he did return, he was soon promoted to Triple-A where he hit .336 over the final three months of the year. Guerrero also hit .351 with just six strikeouts in 77 at-bats in the highly competitive Arizona Fall League.

But, Toronto still has no plans to start him at third base at this moment.

"There is no firm timeline on when he arrives and when he is playing in Toronto for the first time," Atkins said, via ESPN. "But we want to make sure he's the best possible third baseman, best possible hitter he can be. This is going to be a fun and exciting time for him. A fun and exciting time for the organization."

If the Blue Jays were to start Guerrero on the team's 25-man roster on opening day, he would be a free agent after the 2024 season. If he is called up after a few weeks, he will hit the open market in 2025 barring a contract extension.

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