The San Diego Padres could end up being dark horse candidates to acquire Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from the Toronto Blue Jays.

With his free agency looming in less than nine months, the Blue Jays first baseman is generating discussion on a number of fronts.

Even Guerrero’s relatively short remaining window of team control doesn’t fully illustrate how quickly the Blue Jays are reaching a crossroads, however. Guerrero has made clear that he set a deadline for negotiations of the first full day of Spring Training with the club’s front office.