As many of you have read elsewhere, Vlad has signed a 14 year $500 million deal to be here for his career (covers to age 40).
That works out to $35.71 mil per year, or (if you assume little to no value for age 36+) $50 mil per year for 10 plus 4 years of watching him chase 3000 hits and 500 home runs.
The deal has no opt-outs. No deferred money either. So this is the 2nd biggest deal in MLB history, behind only Soto.
So what do the Jays get (beyond ending the never-ending saga)? A lock on 1B with the best one in the game today. He'll be here for ages 27-40 (which was at risk before). Vlad gets to stay a one team player (always good for HOF status) and doesn't ever have to worry about being traded or dealing with the headaches of free agency like his dad did. FYI: His dad for age 27-the end (age 36) had a 138 OPS+ with 35.1 bWAR, 279 HR, and 1711 hits. If Vlad matches that he'd be in the mid-50's for WAR lifetime, with 439 HR and 2626 hits plus whatever he does this year with 4 more years on his contract to try to get those last few hits and HR to get to the magic HOF numbers. Can he do it? Yes. Will he? No idea.
For now lets enjoy this. We all remember his first big moment - the biggest spring home run ever, his longest home run in an all-star game HR contest, Vlad winning the All-Star HR contest. Lets hope we get some regular season highlights soon, and some post-season ones too.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20250407081450305