Life might not seem fair at the moment for Blue Jays prospect Vlad Guerrero Jr., but the fact that baseball’s No. 1-rated prospect isn’t active with the major-league club is a no-win case for the players’ union if it ever came to filing a grievance against the team for holding him back.

The possibility of a grievance filed at a future date on behalf of the prodigy Guerrero was raised last week after Sportsnet spoke to a member of the players’ association front office, who wished to remain anonymous. Those quotes raised the ire of Jays president Mark Shapiro.

“I welcome that scrutiny,” Shapiro said confidently.

The union’s beef is with the suspected manipulation of Guerrero’s major-league service time, a practice that has become more and more common among MLB teams but is difficult to prove.

Carefully calculating prospects’ service time and making sure the MLB segments add up to fewer than 172 days (a full year for the purposes of pension and free agency) is quite simply an attempt to maintain control for an extra season. Instead of six years and free, by delaying the start of a player’s career — or not calling him up for the final month when rosters expand — he must then wait seven years for free agency. The MLBPA is always sensitive to the issue.

Playing fast and loose with service-time rules has come to the fore in Minnesota, with Byron Buxton not being recalled in September and coming up short by 13 days, and with Vlad Jr. headed to the Arizona Fall League that starts Oct. 9 instead of joining the Jays for the final month. Earlier in the year, the Braves slow-played 20-year-old Ronald Acuna Jr., who is now dominating at the major-league level, and the Nationals made sure outfielder Juan Soto had a May 20 debut, meaning the 19-year-old will need that seventh season in order to qualify for free agency.

But the closest parallel to Vlad Jr. might actually be the Cubs with Kris Bryant. In 2014, Bryant split his 22-year-old season between Double-A and Triple-A, batting .325 with 43 homers and 110 RBIs. He was not called up in September. After dominating Cactus League spring training in 2015, the future MVP third baseman made his debut on April 17. His major-league service time at the conclusion of the 2018 season will be three years and 171 days. Of course, 172 days constitute a full year.

“I’m not sure of the player development background of the person that commented from the union,” Shapiro said, referring again to the Sportsnet interview. “But (Jays executives) Ben Cherington, Gil Kim, Ross Atkins, Eric Wedge, myself — that’s like 40 years of player development background — I feel strongly that the best thing for Vladdy’s development is the path that we’ve laid out.”

Guerrero has done everything others have to prepare for the major leagues. He has put in time at every level of the minor-league system, including starting this season at Double-A, challenging the .400 mark, being promoted to Triple-A Buffalo in late July after the induction of his father Vlad Sr. at Cooperstown, then continuing his mastery of the minor leagues with the Bisons for the final month. Yet no promotion, while others with lesser stats got the call.

“In the case of a player like him, there is no debate that he’s on an accelerated time frame,” Shapiro said of the 19-year-old superstar-in-waiting. “He’s already kind of eclipsed the time frame that any player would have at his age and his level of experience. He’s going to get up here at a very young age — maybe next April — and we want him to have as strong of a foundation as humanly possible to be a complete player and a future leader of the Blue Jays.”

Another argument that the Jays have in terms of not adding Vlad Jr. to the major-league roster is that because he was signed as an international free agent at the age of 16, they do not — by rule — need to protect him on the 40-man roster until following the 2019 season. That is not going to happen, since he is expected to be added in April next year, but the Jays can argue that their system is loaded with other prospects who need to be protected from December’s Rule 5 draft on the 40-man roster.

“I was talking to (GM Atkins) and he was looking at our roster-protect decisions,” Shapiro said. “He was sweating and he said, “Man, these decisions are going to be incredibly tough.’ And I was like, ‘Hey man, the tougher the better.’ When we’re where we need to be … when they’re easy, your system’s not very deep.

“We’re going to end up leaving some guys off who we like. We’ll be holding our breath and hoping they don’t get taken. To me that’s a very good sign — a sign that we’ve got depth in our system and that we are moving closer.”

The Jays have 42 names on their 40-man roster — including pitcher Rhiner Cruz and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, both on the 60-day DL. They will lose free-agents Marco Estrada and Tyler Clippard, plus DFA Cruz, to reduce the list to 39. There are other decisions to be made.

There are at minimum 10 minor-league prospects who need to be protected on the 40-man roster. That list is mainly high school and international free agents signed in 2014 or earlier, and college players signed in 2015 or earlier.

“The reality of a building process is, if I’m sitting up here and telling you it’s all about Vladdy and Bo (Bichette) and that’s it, then we’re in big trouble,” Shapiro said. “It can’t be. It’s got to be Vladdy, Bo, (shortstop) Kevin Smith, (shortstop Jordan) Groshans, (right-hander Eric) Pardinho. The list goes on and on. They’re still called prospects for a reason.”

These prospects need to be protected by the Blue Jays on their 40-man roster:

RH Hector Perez (Double-A)

0-1, 3.86 ERA, 252/3 IP, 32K

RH Yennsy Diaz (Class-A)

10-5, 3.05 ERA, 1471/3 IP, 125K

RH Jon Harris (Double/Triple-A)

13-6, 4.61 ERA, 1481/3 IP, 108K

RH Jordan Romano (Double/Triple-A)

12-8, 4.11 ERA, 1421/3 IP, 128K

RH Jacob Waguespack (Triple-A)

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2-4, 5.03 ERA, 391/3 IP, 33K

LH Shawn Morimando (Triple-A)

1-3, 3.67 ERA, 27 IP, 21K

C Max Pentecost (Double-A)

253/.283/.401, 10 HR, 52 RBI

SS Kevin Vicuna (Class-A)

.266/.307/.358, 2 HR, 37 RBI, 10 SB

OF Forrest Wall (Double-A)

.271/.354/.380, 1 HR, 13 RBI, 10 SB

OF Harold Ramirez (Double-A)

N.H. .320/.365/.471, 11 HR, 70 RBI, 16 SB

THE DEAL WITH DONALDSON

It was never going to be a simple August trade going down between the Blue Jays and the Indians. You could have cut the tension with a knife as the deadline approached. Nerves were frayed. Josh Donaldson was touch-and-go healthy enough to play rehab games at Dunedin in time for the 48-hour waiver period.

But according to a story by Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic, apparently some clubs voiced concern to the players’ union because Donaldson went from the Jays’ disabled list to the Indians’ active roster and back to Cleveland’s DL without ever playing a major-league game. The rule is normally that, to be placed on trade waivers, a player has to be deemed healthy enough to at least play minor-league rehab games.

It was iffy with Donaldson and his calf injury. He played five innings on a Tuesday and said he felt sore on Wednesday, but that game was rained out anyway. Then he played in the first game of a Thursday doubleheader, was held out of the lineup Friday after clearing waivers and dealt to the Indians that night.

MLB had to approve of J.D.’s presence on the waiver wire, and obviously the Indians were willing to roll the dice even though it was clear Donaldson was not back yet. As for the one-day activation, it was clear that Donaldson had a big say in that decision and that, once back on the 10-day DL, it was certain he would miss the four-game series at Rogers Centre, which was part of his decision.

The Indians went along with the plan for Donaldson — now expected to make his Indians debut on Tuesday — because all they need with their huge division lead is to have him ready to bring his rain in October. The Jays were just happy to get the trade done.

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