For a guy who has yet to make the majors, Jays prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had quite the year in 2018. Beginning the year in the MLB’s rookie-level and A-advanced leagues, he was able to move up to Double-A and then Triple-A while finishing with a monster stat line across the minors.
In Baseball America’s annual ranking of the top 100 prospects in the MLB released on Wednesday, Guerrero Jr. was ranked first. Another Jays prospect, Bo Bichette, joins him at the number eight spot. Additionally, Baseball Prospectus also ranked Guerrero Jr. first on their list.
While the Jays are entering into a rebuild mode, clearing the contracts of players such as Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin to open paths to playing time for their younger players, fans have every reason to be stoked about Guerrero going forward.
In addition to Guerrero and Bichette, five other Jays prospects were also ranked in Baseball America’s top 100: Danny Jansen (42), Nate Pearson (70), Eric Pardinho (84), Jordan Groshans (89) and Kevin Smith (91).
While Jays fans would surely like to see Guerrero Jr. live in action at the major-league level as soon as possible, the team can gain an extra year of team control by holding out the 19 year old until mid-April of 2019. He’s still young, but with the way that he’s raking in the minors, it shouldn’t be long before this guy is at bat for the Toronto Blue Jays.