Report: Blue Jays' Guerrero Jr. ‘Bothered’ by 2021 MVP Voting

Guerrero Jr. is reportedly surprised Ohtani was the unanimous MVP winner last season.

© Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has some thoughts on how last year’s MVP voting went down.

"I knew I wasn't going to win the MVP,” Guerrero Jr. reportedly told Spanish-language journalist Yancen Pujols. “But it bothered me that they wouldn't have given me a point for first place.”

Guerrero Jr. finished second in MVP voting but had a spectacular season in 2021. He led the AL in on-base percentage (.401), slugging (.601), and OPS+ (169), and finished tied for first in MLB with 48 home runs. Still, it wasn’t enough to top the Angels’ two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani, who received all 30 first-place MVP votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America.

“I knew [Ohtani] was going to win it, but not that it would be unanimous," Guerrero said.

If Guerrero Jr. does indeed feel slighted by the voting, it’ll be interesting to see how he opens the 2022 season. The 23-year-old dealt with plenty of pressure during his first two seasons, which intensified due to criticisms about his conditioning and whether he’d be able to live up to his massive hype.

But Guerrero Jr. entered the 2021 campaign noticeably slimmer, and the extra work paid off, as he turned in one of the most impressive seasons in Blue Jays history. Now he’s dropped even more weight for 2022, according to his personal trainer, Jose Fortuna.

Guerrero Jr. has enjoyed an excellent spring training so far, recording four hits, including a massive home run, in seven at-bats, giving every indication he’s good to go for Toronto’s Opening Day on April 8.