Vlad Guerrero Jr. ‘pushing himself hard’ during offseason workouts

Blue Jays CEO Mark Shapiro told Toronto’s 590 The Fan this morning that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. “couldn’t be pushing himself harder” in offseason workouts. He’s apparently trying to trim down and strengthen that large-ish frame of his.

Touted as the top prospect in baseball, Guerrero hit .272/.339/.433 with 15 home runs and 69 RBI over his first 123 major league games and played a less-than-great third base. He’s obviously super talented and one strongly suspects that, even if he did not do anything to get in better shape, he’ll be an excellent hitter in the big leagues for a long time. His track record in the minors speaks for itself.

Still, baseball history is loaded with would-be studs who petered out early or never panned out entirely due to poor conditioning or what have you. Sounds like Vlad is determined not to have that happen to him, and that’s a good thing.