Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opened and closed a media scrum Friday with an apology to Blue Jays fans.

He requested the session himself, nearly four hours before Toronto hosted the Reds, specifically to address his viral Spanish-language podcast comments from Wednesday.

"The main reason I'm here because I regret my comments I made the other day, what I said the other day, and that's why I'm here," Guerrero said through translator Hector Lebron.

"I feel from my heart that my fans, my teammates, they need an apology from me, and that's what I'm here for."

He'd stood firm on those original comments as recently as Wednesday in Baltimore, right after Toronto lost both ends of a doubleheader by identical 4-2 scores, results that officially eliminated the Blue Jays from playoff contention.

Something changed during Thursday's off day.

"I just give it some thought, and I feel like the comments that I made the other day is not what I really wanted to say," Guerrero said. "I really feel that everyone, my fans, everyone, deserves an apology from me."

Why his father's words carried real weight here

Manager John Schneider confirmed Guerrero had already apologized to teammates in a players-only meeting, along with several separate conversations directly with Schneider himself.

"What you see on the field a fun-loving guy and you see a really really good player, but I think that he could be misunderstood sometimes and he's one of the best teammates that I've ever seen," Schneider said.

"He definitely puts in the work to post every day, and I think some things can kind of get lost in translation, for lack of a better way to say it, but he's misunderstood maybe a little bit at times. He can be an easy target because of the contract and because of everything."

One of the people Guerrero spoke to Thursday was his own father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero.

"He basically told me that what I did was wrong, and to make sure that I do what I'm doing right now, giving all my fans an apology," Guerrero said.

Statistically, this remains one of the worst seasons of his career, a .263 average, nine home runs, and 56 RBIs in the first year of his 14-year, $500 million deal.

"I'm not going to make any excuses. I mean, basically, I didn't have a good season," Guerrero said, notably declining to point to ongoing back issues as a factor.

"My focus right now is going into the off-season, work very hard, and make sure that I come back strong and make my contract a great one."