TORONTO – Despite a good series in Cleveland with four hits, including a home run, and six RBIs earlier this month, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. still didn’t feel right so he reached out to John Schneider and the two made plans to talk.
The Toronto Blue Jays manager regularly checks in with his superstar, “he calls one in the morning, two in the morning to see how I am,” the first baseman said, and they decided to huddle up in the visitors’ clubhouse at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium.
“Sometimes we lie a lot, we say we're good and we're not good,” Guerrero explained. “If you need help, just ask for help. I learned a lot about that this year and the other day I told him I just need help and we talked for like 45 minutes in his office. After that I felt relief, because I needed to talk with somebody that can hear me, besides my family. I talk with my family every day, but sometimes you need other people to hear you and feel you. Everything's been great after that. My mind has been clear.”
The conversation is demonstrative of the toll a difficult season at the plate has taken on the 27-year-old and the fortitude he’s shown in pushing through the daily angst to stay in the grind. Importantly, he hasn’t let batting .262/.334/.360 with nine home runs and 56 RBIs, heading into Friday’s series opener at the Texas Rangers, impact who he is, making the difficult look routine defensively at first base, playing with energy, maintaining his infectious smile and joviality while caring for those around him.
There’s a wider significance to that, as having signed a $500-million, 14-year contract, Guerrero’s fully cognizant of how impactful every single thing he does can be, both externally and internally, and that the way he carries himself sets a tone for the club. He knows that if he mopes or sulks, if he worries only about himself, that creates permission for others to do the same, which is why he’s made a conscious effort to not let his personal frustrations and physical limitations bleed into his behaviour.
“In watching Vlad go through it, I try to use it as an opportunity to make sure that good can come out of it and to his credit, he hasn't budged,” said Schneider. “The fact that he has posted, the fact that he's continued to interact with his teammates and do the things that you notice is a step in the right direction for him as a leader of this team. My job is to just remind him how important just his presence is and just how important his body language is and people feed off of that. And people feed of his energy, his effort, his enthusiasm. So even when times are bad for you, there can be good that comes out of it. I know people are taking shots at him. I couldn't be more proud of how he's handled that. He could have easily said, ‘Woe is me, I'm having a shitty year,’ and worry about that. But he's spread the love to his teammates and made sure that everyone around him is OK.”
Added George Springer: “He works his ass off. He's here late. He's here early. He'll dissect everything. I'm sure he would like to have his normal season, but he shows up every day and he never gets down. He always looks like he's the same. That can be wrong, but he works his ass off and that's all anybody can ask of him.”
None of that means that aren’t times when the drop in production doesn’t get to Guerrero, who credits Blue Jays mental performance coach John Lannon, teammates like Springer, Hector Lebron, the club’s cultural development co-ordinator and interpreter, and of course, Schneider for helping him to better manage his mind.
That day in Kansas City, for instance, Guerrero was frustrated because “you try everything to get better and still it's the same,” he said. “Baseball is really hard and if you don't have your mindset, baseball can make you crazy. At the point that I needed him, he was there for me. I respect him and I love him a lot.”
Schneider leans on his own mental performance work when dealing with players, rooted in the belief that his role as manager and coach is to help players get better and assist “in any way, shape or form” they need. As an example with Guerrero, he asked his star to recognize the various cues that worked for him when he was successful and where he was in relation to them. They then discussed different approaches to work his way back to them.
“There are physical things you can do, there are breathing techniques you can do and it just goes back to controlling what you can control,” said Schneider. “You can control your attitude. You can you control your mental state. You can’t control the outcome of when the ball leaves your bat. If that's your scorecard, that's good. So, you’re saying, ‘What are the three things to keep it simple Vlad? If it's get a good pitch, crush it and think that no one's better than you, OK, say that, actually say that, and be present in that moment when you're going up on the plate every single time.
“It's hard to do,” Schneider continued. “But the more you train yourself, the elite athletes do it every single time, no matter what. They're able to understand when they are in a red-light situation, what's the release to get back into a green light. If I’m sitting 0-2 with the bases loaded, what do I to get myself mentally locked in to win the next pitch. Those are some of the things I've talked to Vlad about over the last couple weeks.”
Like everything for Guerrero this season, the results have been mixed, batting .277/.358/.383 in the 12 games since, although he did hit his first Rogers Centre home run of the season last weekend.
Regardless, any internal churn has been impossible to detect, from joking with teammates during pre-game infield work, to being first out of the dugout when games start to dousing teammates with drink coolers after post-game wins. Following Wednesday’s 5-1 win over Detroit, he made sure to douse Myles Straw’s cleats when the outfielder removed them and tossed them aside in a futile bid to keep them dry.
“When I leave this ballpark when I’m done for my career, I want them to know me as a good person,” said Guerrero. “I don't want anybody to say that he was not good with teammates, he was selfish. I always think about that. My dad always told me, be there for your teammates and never change, it doesn't matter if you're good or not good that year, be the same person. Every day I come here, I try to be the same person and try to enjoy every moment with my team.
“I’m always trying to laugh, always giving my best and it's simple,” he continued. “If people see me not laughing, they'll think he's got something (going on), he's probably got something personal (happening). Sometimes it's not my day. If I don't feel that good that day, and they don't see me laughing, everybody comes to me and asks me, 'Hey, what's happening? Do you have any problems?’ I’ll say, 'No, today I don't feel that good,' so they pick me up and do a really good job.”
Having lived many of the pressures that Guerrero has as a star prospect turned franchise player, Springer has more insights into his reality than most. Over his nearly six years with the Blue Jays, the 37-year-old has come to know both “Vladimir the human and Vladimir the player.”
“I'll keep what him and I discuss between us, but I love Vlad,” said Springer. “I’ll do anything I can to help him, whether it's sit in a room with him for five hours, or just sit here and have a talk.
“Everybody has a lot of expectations and it’s much deserved because he's so good and all of the stuff he's already done,” he continued. “Ultimately, he just needs to go play baseball and be who he is. He doesn’t have to hit the five-run homer. He has to do one thing every day to help us win and obviously he's our guy. He's been as consistent as he can be in the middle out here and that's all that matters.”
Showing that to his teammates, even amid the various physical ailments that have forced him to miss a career-high 15 games, matters to Guerrero, too. He could point to the forearm, back, hamstring or concussion issues he’s had as reasons for his numbers, but “I don't make excuses, so nobody makes excuses.”
That’s why, when asked what he hopes his fellow Blue Jays take from the way he’s navigated a trying season, he quickly replied, “that I didn't give up.”
“I tried every day. I gave all that I had. I didn't personalize. And I did everything that I can to help the team win,” he continued. “That's why I always keep my head up. I go out there and try to give it everything. I came in early, hitting early work, extra work, but it's God's decision when he's going to bless you. You've got to wait for His time, not your time. I believe in God, I read the Bible every day and the Bible explains everything that happens to me. I'm going to give you all that I have, try to help the team and do whatever I can.”
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