Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. recently underwent laser eye surgery, as announced on Instagram by the Laser Eye Center of Miami and confirmed by Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. It’s unclear exactly when the surgery occurred, as the Center’s post was made during a post-op visit, though in any case it shouldn’t affect Guerrero’s offseason work.

The 27-year-old Guerrero had a trying season this year, the first of his 14-year, $500MM extension which he signed in April 2025. In 144 games, Guerrero batted .260/.332/.356 with just nine home runs and a 95 wRC+, putting him a few points below league average. The most concerning trend was the drop in his power. Guerrero’s .356 slugging percentage and .096 ISO were both career lows. His hard-hit rate fell from 50.7% in 2025 to a (still above-average) 44.3% in 2026. The same was true of Guerrero’s average exit velocity, which sat at 92.0 mph last year and declined to 90.3 mph this year.

It’s true that Guerrero went through a few prolonged slumps that tanked his season numbers, but even in his good months, the power wasn’t there like in seasons past. The slugger had a 158 wRC+ through the end of April, though that was propped up by an unsustainable .396 average on balls in play and disguised an underwhelming .115 ISO. The months of May (79 wRC+) and especially June (37 wRC+) were harsh corrections. Guerrero rebounded somewhat with a 108 wRC+ in July, backed by a .140 ISO that was closer to, but still lower than league average. He then regressed to a 56 wRC+ in August, when he spent a week on the concussion IL, before bouncing back to a 109 wRC+ in September.

In no single month did Guerrero’s SLG and ISO metrics exceed their respective career norms of .478 and .193. While low BABIPs in May (.241), June (.213), and August (.239) may have partly accounted for the downturn, it’s clear that he simply never had his usual power stroke.  What seems to have happened, at least in part, is that pitchers did not throw in the zone as often to Guerrero, and he expanded the strike zone and made more frequent contact on less desirable pitches as a result.

Just over half the pitches Guerrero saw in 2025 were in the strike zone. That decreased to 45.4% in 2026, the lowest zone percentage of his career since his 2019 debut campaign. Guerrero swung at 5% more of his pitches overall and 9.2% more of pitches out of the zone, going from a 21.4% O-Swing rate last year to 30.6% this year. He also went after pitches in the shadow of the zone more often, resulting in an 11.4% uptick in Shadow-Swing% and a 5.9% increase in Shadow-Contact%. Statcast rated Guerrero at -22 in Batting Run Value for pitches in the shadow of the zone. His -15 BRV in the heart of the zone was also shockingly low.

The news of Guerrero’s laser eye surgery suggests he may have struggled with pitch recognition, which offers some explanation for those struggles. Hopefully, the operation will help him return to form in 2027. The Blue Jays sure could use the help. The team tied for sixth-worst in the Majors with a 94 wRC+ and like Guerrero, they particularly struggled with power, posting a league-worst .134 ISO. Kazuma Okamoto (113 wRC+) and outgoing designated hitter George Springer (105 wRC+) were their only two qualified bats to rate above league average by wRC+. The Jays scored the fewest runs (648) out of all big league clubs and missed the playoffs on the back of a 79-83 record.

Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images