Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., mired in a down offensive season and recently sidelined by a concussion, is nearing a return from the seven-day injured list. Despite external debates over moving him down in the batting order, manager John Schneider plans to keep the superstar in the heart of the lineup.
Guerrero Nears Return From Concussion Injured List
The Toronto Blue Jays are preparing to welcome back their cornerstone slugger as they enter the final stretch of the 2026 season. Guerrero landed on the seven-day concussion injured list after suffering an injury against the New York Yankees.
The recovery process has progressed rapidly over the past week. Ahead of the Blue Jays’ weekend series against the Yankees in the Bronx, Toronto revealed a major update on Guerrero Jr.’s status after he made a rehab appearance Thursday night. Blue Jays manager John Schneider revealed that Guerrero Jr. has fully cleared his final concussion tests and is ready to return to action. The expectation is that Toronto will activate him Saturday, allowing him to play in the final two games of the series.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is with the Blue Jays in New York after going 1-for-1 with a double and two walks in a rehab game with Dunedin yesterday,
Arden Zwelling of Blue Jays on Sportsnet reported. He’s passed all his concussion tests, per Blue Jays manager John Schneider, and is on track to be activated from IL on Saturday.
The Debate Over the Batting Order and Guerrero’s Struggles
The timing of the injury intersects with a broader conversation surrounding Guerrero’s offensive output. Fresh off a transcendent performance in the 2025 postseason, he has flopped in ’26, batting .262 with a .689 OPS and just seven homers, none of them coming at home. Big moments keep finding Guerrero, but he can’t find that breakthrough, that one swing he’s spent all season searching for. With even a “good” version of Guerrero, the Blue Jays would likely be in a postseason spot today.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has spent 940 games hitting in the heart of the Toronto Blue Jays’ order. That’s 87 percent of his career MLB starts hitting second or third. When he’s mashing, there’s little question that’s where he belongs. With the first baseman mired in the worst season of his professional career, though, his lineup spot has been questioned. The Jays have thought about moving him down, manager John Schneider said Wednesday. For now, they’ve decided against it.
I don’t want to punish him,
Schneider said. If there were guys that were tearing the cover off the ball, it’s a little bit easier to think about, but we are built as a team for Vlad to be a focal point of the offence.
The real issue isn’t Guerrero’s spot in the order; it’s his lack of production. There would be no talk about batting order if Guerrero’s OPS didn’t start with a six. Yet his OPS remains more than 150 points below his career average, and he’s on pace for his fewest homers in a full season by 14. Guerrero’s swing is out of whack. It has been for most of the season. He flashes a sweet lash every so often, as he did on a roped double in the eighth inning on Tuesday, but they’re fairly rare.
Reflecting on Past Lineup Shifts and Looking Ahead
The manager is no stranger to shaking up his batting order to spark production. The Toronto Blue Jays’ lineup on Aug. 16, 2022 featured a major surprise — Bo Bichette dropped from fifth to seventh in the order, the lowest he’d ever started a game in the majors. John Schneider, interim manager for about a month at that point, was looking to rouse his all-star shortstop, slumping at .260/.300/.427, and the switch was a sure way to accomplish that. In hindsight, Schneider calls the decision “reactionary,” a byproduct of me being young in the job and kind of dumb,
but at the time he felt he needed to like, kick a dog a little bit.
After some initial expletives and a lot of discomfort, Bichette responded as Schneider had hoped, batting .361/.408/.565 with seven homers and 29 RBIs in the season’s final 47 games, a run that helped carry the Blue Jays to the post-season. Bichette didn’t start in the seventh spot again. Does that work for everyone? No,
said Schneider. But it kind of worked for him.
The anecdote was pertinent Wednesday afternoon, as Schneider conceded that he’s kicked around the idea of dropping the slumping Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the batting order, but isn’t certain about what such a move would accomplish. For better or worse, there was intent in the shift for Bichette, while with Guerrero, a change at this point is more blind grasp than purposeful plan.
There’s been thoughts of it, I just don’t know what the outcome would be,
Schneider said. I don’t want to punish him. I think if there were guys tearing the cover off the ball, that would be a little easier to think about, too. We are built, as a team, for Vlad to be a focal point of our offense.
