Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays will be attached for the rest of this season and 14 more. The two sides reportedly finally got an extension done on Sunday for 14 years and $500 million.

Guerrero and his camp had originally proclaimed a Feb. 18 (the start of spring training) deadline that came and went without a deal. By Guerrero’s own account, the two sides were not close. Guerrero talked more than I would have expected from a guy who gave a deadline and didn’t get what he wanted. He shared that he wanted $500 million in net present value. He didn’t want a deal that looked better than it really was because of deferred compensation.

Reports had the Blue Jays’ final offer at the Feb. 18 deadline right around $450 million. Guerrero made it clear that he would be open to further negotiations if the Jays had a legitimate offer.

Jays team president Mark Shapiro addressed the media a week before the season opener and said, "I think we're going to sign him. I think we're going to extend him. We have such a clear alignment on the desired outcome.” His comments made no sense to me at the time, since the Jays had made a final offer that had come up short by a significant amount of money. In my mind, the only way he could be so confident was if he knew had had ownership approval to go to Guerrero’s number. It also made me wonder why they just didn’t go there on Feb. 18.

Ultimately, the Jays blinked and gave Guerrero what he wanted. There wasn’t more negotiation, only concession on behalf of the club.

This is the price of doing business for a large-market team. By playing it out the way he did, Guerrero squeezed just about every last dollar out of the system and the Blue Jays.

The two sides struggled to find a good starting point........

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