Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins told reporters that "there's no firm timeline" on prized prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s arrival to the bigs.

"There's no firm timeline on when he arrives or when he is playing in Toronto for the first time," Atkins said Thursday at spring training. "But we want to make sure he's the best possible third baseman and the best possible hitter he can be."

Guerrero, who turns 20 years old in March, is already making waves. Over four levels of minor league baseball last season, the son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero slashed .381/.437/.636. Most impressively, Guerrero had no problem with Triple-A pitching based on producing six home runs, 16 RBI and a .336 batting average in 30 games.

Unsurprisingly, Guerrero is the top-ranked player on MLB Pipeline's list of the top 100 prospects. He received a perfect 80 grade for his hitting ability as well. The site's scouting report is glowing:

"Guerrero is an elite, generational-type hitter who stands out as much for his physical tools at the plate as his approach and capacity for making adjustments. His swing is both explosive and efficient, a combination of electric bat speed, physical strength and off-the-charts barrel control, and it makes him adept at crushing both heaters and secondary pitches to all parts of the field. He has 80-grade raw power and hit a career-high 20 home runs in 2018, but it's widely agreed that Guerrero is merely scraping the surface of his power ceiling."

Toronto is in rebuilding mode with the core from its 2015 and 2016 teams that appeared in the American League Championship Series now dismantled. The future is bright, however, with Guerrero, Bo Bichette (No. 11) and catcher Danny Jansen leading a group of six Jays in the top 100.

Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report ranks the Blue Jays' farm system third in Major League Baseball.

Third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was among the Toronto Blue Jays' non-roster invitees to 2019 spring training, the team announced Saturday.

Guerrero was not only Toronto's top-ranked prospect a season ago, but he was also the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.

The 19-year-old did nothing but validate his ranking by raking at the plate last season, hitting an incredible .381/.437/.636 while mashing 20 home runs and 29 doubles to go with 78 RBI in 95 games. And he did all that while working his way through the Blue Jays system, climbing the ladder from rookie ball to Triple-A.

Though it was in a small sample size, Guerrero showed he was more than ready to handle Triple-A pitching, hitting .336/.414/.564 with six dingers in 30 appearances with the Buffalo Bisons.

Guerrero got his first taste of the big leagues last year, when he went 7-for-13 with one home run, one double and two RBI in four games during camp. He provided one of the top moments in MLB preseason history when he hit a walk-off home run in Montreal, where his father Vladimir Guerrero played the first eight years of his Hall of Fame career:

Toronto, which finished 73-89 and in fourth place in the American League East, received no shortage of criticism for keeping Guerrero in the minors for the duration of the 2018 campaign, which prevented his service clock from starting. The MLB Players Association was especially critical of the organization's decision, per Sportsnet's Shi Davidi:

"The union's position on service-time manipulation is clear: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and other great young talents around baseball have earned the right to play on the field for a major league team. The decision to not to bring him up is a business decision, not a baseball decision. It's bad for the Blue Jays, it's bad for fans, it's bad for players and it's bad for the industry."

Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro told SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio the franchise believed it was in Guerrero's best interest for him to continue to develop before he made his MLB debut.

Guerrero has a clearer path to the big leagues this year than he did in 2018, as 2015 American League MVP Josh Donaldson has since moved on, leaving Brandon Drury and Richard Urena as Toronto's top options at the hot corner.

Fans will recognize some of the other non-roster invitees as well, as infielders Bo Bichette (Blue Jays' No. 2 prospect) and Cavan Biggio (No. 9) and pitcher Mark Leiter Jr. will all participate in big league camp.