Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has hit a truly mind-boggling milestone for the Toronto Blue Jays, officially reaching 365 days without a single home run at his home ballpark, Rogers Centre. Yeah, you read that right. As of this Monday, August 17, it has been one full year since Blue Jays fans saw their superstar blast a homer in Toronto during the regular season. This is wild, considering the guy was a 48-homer machine back in 2021.
The Drought Is Real: A Power Hitter’s Nightmare
This isn’t some short slump, folks; this is a full-blown power drought right where he should be crushing it. The last time Guerrero went deep at Rogers Centre in a regular season game was last August 17, during a 10-4 loss to the Texas Rangers. And get this: after that last dinger, he didn’t hit another one in the next 18 home games that season. Then, through 59 home games this season, the streak just kept on rolling. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale called it, saying, “It will be the one-year anniversary Monday, Aug. 17, of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s last home run at Rogers Centre in Toronto, if you can believe it.” Before Monday, Guerrero had already gone 329 plate appearances at home without a single homer. That’s just bananas for a guy known for his pop. This season, he’s only got seven home runs total, and every single one of them was on the road. His stats at home are pretty rough too: a .257 average with a .645 OPS across 218 at-bats in 59 games, which is a stark contrast to his .269 average and .742 OPS on the road. The guy can still hit, but the power at home? Totally gone.
What This Means For Toronto’s Postseason Push
The Blue Jays are having a pretty rough 2026 season, but somehow, they’re still hanging around in the postseason hunt because the American League is just incredibly weak right now. But a huge reason why they’ve played so far below expectations is absolutely Guerrero Jr.’s struggles. You can’t have your supposed superstar power hitter unable to clear the fences at home for an entire year and expect to be dominating. To make things even worse, he’s currently on the 7-day concussion injured list, which means this ridiculous home run drought is only going to get longer. While he did hit a homer at Rogers Centre on October 19 during Game 6 of the ALCS last year, that’s playoffs, not regular season. Blue Jays fans are waiting for any kind of home run, regular season or not, and he’s got a couple months until that marks a full year too.
Look, this is a tough one to watch. For a superstar power hitter like Guerrero Jr. to go 365 regular season days without a home run in his own ballpark is just wild. He’s got 15 more chances to hit a homer at home this season, starting with a series on August 25 against the Kansas City Royals. You gotta hope he breaks it then. And yeah, even for us here in the Emerald City, you see stuff like the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh on track to hit fewest HR after 60+ homer season in MLB history and you just gotta wonder about power hitting sometimes.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by The Sporting News.
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