Players in the best shape of their lives stories dominate early spring training, but I find this one on Vlad Guerrero Jr concerning:

Guerrero has been working out with personal trainer Nicole Gabriel for much of the winter, and by the looks of images and videos posted to her Instagram account, the results are impressive.

Of course that sounds like a familiar off-season refrain for the player long believed to have the most potential from this talented group of Jays players. Yes, the subject of Guerrero’s fitness has been a hot topic for the 24-year-old slugger, but an area where he has once again publicly committed to improve. Over time, some of the criticism has been justified, but some of it is over the top as he has worked through some struggles in his young career.

TorontoSun.com

He posted a 6.3 fWAR at seasonal age 22, then saw in drop to 2.8 and 1.0. If a player posts a 6.3 WAR at age 22, that should be indicative of long term success, since he still has years to improve.

I suspect part of the motivation comes from being two seasons away from free agency. A six WAR player hitting free agency in the middle of his prime years should bring an historic contract. The Blue Jays certainly hope an improvement happens, as they underperformed expectations the last two seasons. We’ll see if the winter workouts win, and how long the motivation lasts.