Shapiro: Vlad Jr. will 'absolutely' join Blue Jays when healthy

Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro revealed Thursday that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will be up with the team when he is healthy.

"Absolutely, yea," Shapiro told Jamie Campbell of Sportsnet. "We just need to get him healthy first and need to address the other things that we mentioned at the outset of spring training, perhaps the things that led to that injury. You know, ensuring that his routines are major-league caliber and ensuring that he has the proper foundation under him when he comes up here.

"We've said all along, he's on an expedited time frame ... we are not holding him back, we're speeding him up. We just want to make sure he's got the best foundation possible when he gets here, which will be on an accelerated time frame."

Guerrero is recovering from a Grade 1 left oblique strain. General manager Ross Atkins said Thursday that the third baseman will play in games in Florida this weekend, according to Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun.

The club announced earlier this week that Guerrero is "ahead of schedule" after suffering the injury March 10th in a spring game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was originally expected to be out for three weeks.

While questions surrounding service-time manipulation have cooled since Guerrero incurred his injury, many top prospects have played their way onto MLB rosters with the likes of Fernando Tatis Jr., Pete Alonso, and Eloy Jimenez playing on Opening Day.

Atkins proclaimed last month that he didn't see Guerrero as an MLB player at that time because of concerns regarding his defensive play and fitness. Following those comments, the 20-year-old said he was trying to get himself in better shape while working to forego fast food and improve his diet.

Guerrero - the consensus top prospect in baseball - slashed .381/.437/.636 with 20 home runs across four minor-league levels in 2018.