Ross Atkins is on the clock again, this time cleaning up after Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s comments.

Guerrero holds the richest contract in Canadian sports history, and now he's at the center of a genuine PR mess right at the end of a disappointing follow-up to last year's AL championship season.

The flashpoint was blunt. The Blue Jays "didn't pay me to hit 40 homers every year," Guerrero said, then doubled down rather than walk it back.

Right or wrong, that's the reality of superstardom. Rogers Communications may not have paid $500 million US specifically for 40 home runs, but they certainly expected more than nine.

There's room for some empathy here too. Guerrero works hard, is clearly carrying the weight of both his struggles and the contract, and sounds sincere about improving.

Why Schneider plans to play him this weekend anyway

The easy, weak move would be sitting Guerrero entirely for this play-out-the-string series against the Reds. That would be lame.

Barring a real physical downturn, manager John Schneider has to play the face of the franchise at some point, and Sportsnet's Kevin Barker reported Friday morning that Toronto does plan to play him against Cincinnati.

If he manages a second home run this season, he'd actually reach double digits for the year.

The crowd reaction will be worth watching closely. For most of his seven seasons, Guerrero has been a beloved fan favorite, a status only deepened by last October's sensational postseason.

One tone-deaf comment to a Spanish-language podcast has put some of that goodwill on the rocks, for a fan base that's filled Rogers Centre all season at higher ticket prices despite the poor results.

This likely isn't permanent. But as the reaction ripples through the baseball world, what happens next is genuinely delicate.

This isn't even the first late-season Guerrero firestorm. Back on Sept. 21, 2019, he admitted he never lifted weights in the offseason, a comment that outraged fans and triggered immediate damage control at the time.

"I never did weights in the off-season before. It was never part of the plan," Guerrero said then, at just 20 years old. He's since matured and dedicated himself to that side of the job.

Then-manager Charlie Montoyo offered advice back then that still applies now. "It's up to the kid at the end of the day. It's your career. It's up to you."

With a challenging, critical offseason ahead for Atkins, and an abbreviated winter likely given the looming MLB work stoppage, rehabilitating Guerrero's status as an elite performer sits right at the top of the to-do list, and this week's noise didn't make that job any easier.