At the Toronto Blue Jays spring training home of Dunedin, Fla., almost nine years ago, a teenaged prospect walked into the front reception area of the team’s minor-league complex to meet a reporter.

He had medium-length dreadlocks poking out from under his Jays cap, didn’t look the least bit capable of growing a beard and was a little on the chubby side. But he was already one of the most fearsome would-be sluggers in the sport.

“Hello,” said Vladimir Guerrero Jr., in rehearsed English. “Nice to meet you.”

The Blue Jays of spring 2017 were in a bit of an odd spot. Two years earlier, a good Toronto team had exploded into a great one down the stretch, making baseball fans again out of a generation of lapsed supporters, who had lost interest over two moribund decades, and who now were brin

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