When the Toronto Blue Jays signed franchise cornerstone Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year, $500 million extension on Monday, teams around the league had to shuffle to the metaphorical big board and change their offseason plans. The New York Yankees are one of those teams.

The reality is the Blue Jays are the winners of this deal and the other 29 teams are the losers, but ESPN's David Schoenfield singled out the Yankees, San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers, and he had good reason to do so.

“I'll throw in a couple of losers here — those teams where Guerrero could have been a great fit in 2026,” he wrote. “That would include the aforementioned Yankees (Paul Goldschmidt on a one-year deal), plus the Giants (pursuing a big star for years) or maybe the Tigers (plenty of payroll room).”

The Yankees will need to make moves at both of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s positions in the near future

New York Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (48) at Yankee Stadium.
Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

The Yankees are banking on Paul Goldschmidt to hold up at first base through his age 37 season, even if he can't rediscover his 2022 NL MVP form. So far so good on that front, with Goldschmidt hitting .324 through the team's first nine games.

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But he's not a long-term solution at the position, much like how Oswaldo Cabrera isn't the long-term solution at third base.

Guerrero has spent the lion's share of his MLB career at first, but he also has more than 100 starts at third. The Yankees failed to make serious runs at first basemen like Pete Alonso and Christian Walker in free agency, as well as third baseman Alex Bregman. That was understandable with Guerrero set to hit free agency.

Now, New York will need to pivot. Alonso and Bregman both have opt-outs after this year but there's no reason to bank on either of them executing those and the rest of the class seems underwhelming at those positions. Ben Rice is off to a great start for the Yankees but there's hardly a Major League sample size worth drawing conclusions over.

That leaves the Yankees with three options: continue to plug holes on the corners by taking chances in free agency, go all-in on Rice and Cabrera, or pull something off via trade. They have time to figure it out and by no means should they be sounding the alarm — the Blue Jays just made their job a little harder.