Stroman, Blue Jays preach patience as Vlad Jr. struggles

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s first taste of the big leagues hasn't gone as smoothly as many expected.

After going 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts in Monday's 8-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins, the Toronto Blue Jays' top prospect saw his batting line drop to .152/.243/.182 with no home runs and one RBI through his first nine major-league games. Guerrero's lone extra-base hit was a double in his debut.

One person not pushing the panic button after such a short period of time is Blue Jays ace Marcus Stroman.

"He's here for a reason," Stroman said, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. "You have to have unbelievable confidence in yourself to get the job done. You play 162 games. You go through spurts where you have two or three bad starts. You go 0-for-15, 0-for-20. It's part of baseball. It's part of life. He's going to be fine. He knows how good he is and that he's going to be here for a long time."

Expectations have understandably been through the roof for the 20-year-old, as he rarely struggled in the minor leagues. Over parts of four seasons in the minors, he hit .331/.413/.531 with 44 home runs and 209 RBI in 288 games.

Despite the track record and the awareness of his preternatural ability to hit a baseball, he's shown his frustration at the plate and in the field, where he committed his second error of the season. The Blue Jays are chalking it up to growing pains and are practicing patience with their budding superstar.

"All we can do is say 'relax and you're going to be all right,'" skipper Charlie Montoyo said. "We all know he's going to be all right. But he's 20 years old. Of course, anyone would show frustration when struggling and he showed it today."

Guerrero's next shot will come Tuesday when the Twins send ace right-hander Jose Berrios to the hill.