He’s not even a free agent, but 25-year-old Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is already one of the biggest names in the offseason discussion. Guerrero as a topic has only heated up in recent days after he gave an interview to Abriendo Sports in which he made an eye-opening revelation.

Guerrero only has the 2025 season remaining for his commitment to the Blue Jays. He is estimated to receive an arbitration award on a one-year, $28.8 million contract after prevailing in a $19.9 million arbitration case against the Blue Jays before last season.

In the December 22 interview, Guerrero revealed that the Blue Jays had offered him a multi-year contract extension, but “what they offered me is not close to what I’m looking for,” he told journalist Héctor Gómez, who Guerrero’s statement on his X account (formerly Twitter) was translated from Spanish.

What is the Blue Jays superstar looking for then? In the interview, he strongly suggested that he should receive a contract offer similar to the mega-deals received by Juan Soto from the New York Mets in early December and Shohei Ohtani from the Los Angeles Dodgers last year.

Guerrero said the Blue Jays’ offer he rejected was about $340 million over several years, although he did not specify how much.

“My numbers changed thanks to Juan Soto,” Guerrero said in the interview, translated by Gómez. “Shohei Ohtani changed the system for Soto and Soto changed the system for me.”

More MLB: “Complicated” free agent Pete Alonso in the “Game of Chicken” with the New York Mets?

Soto received a 15-year, $765 million contract from the Mets. Ohtani was paid $700 million over ten years (though he agreed to defer all but $2 million of his $70 million annual salary for another decade). Baseball insiders estimate Guerrero’s final contract to be around $500 million, but some expect it to reach the $600 million mark – a huge sum but still well below the paydays of Soto and Ohtani lies.

Is Guerrero really worth a Soto Ohtani contract? Not based on comparing his stats to these two historically talented players. Guerrero’s on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS (which combines these two numbers) are all significantly lower than Soto’s.

The distance to Ohtani is even clearer. Despite playing just 41 fewer games in his career than the 2024 National League MVP, Guerrero’s total Wins Above Replacement (WAR) (21.5) is less than half of Ohtanis (43.8).

More MLB: Phillies’ ‘underrated’ star expected to sign $36 million deal with Red Sox

Given that Guerrero and the Blue Jays appear far apart and the four-time All-Star has set the first full day of spring training — Feb. 20 — as the deadline to complete negotiations, Toronto may have no other choice , than to cut ties with his superstar via a trade before entering free agency after the 2025 season.

The team that acquires Guerrero will need the financial capacity to meet its contract requirements and also the ability to return a player who can replace Guerrero in the Blue Jays’ lineup.

The only team with a young, hard-hitting first baseman still under team control would be the Boston Red Sox and their 24-year-old first-bagger Triston Casas. With a rate of one home run per 20 plate appearances, Casas has hit the yard more often than Guerrero, who averages a round-tripper every 22.1 plate appearances.

Depending on how talks between Guerrero and the Blue Jays progress, a Casas-for-Guerrero trade could soon become the hot topic of this offseason.

More MLB: Rangers GM gives glowing comments after meeting with Roki Sasaki