The Toronto Blue Jays have come to terms on a 5 year deal with outfielder Anthony Santander worth more than $92.5M the club announced Monday. The deal is currently pending a physical.
Santander had a career year in Baltimore last season, posting a .506 slugging percentage to go along with 44 home runes, 103 RBIs and 25 doubles. Only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani had more longballs than Santander did in 2024. As a result, the 30 year old was named to his first All-Star game.
The Santander signing marks the first significant deal of the Blue Jays offseason. Continuing their “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” run of luck, Toronto was a finalist for Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, and Roki Sasaki over the last year, but fell short in each instance.
While the switch hitting Santander is a nice addition to the Jays lineup, his defensive shortcomings and low on base percentage make him a clear tier below some of the other offseason additions that clubs such as the Dodgers, Mets, and even Yankees have added this winter.
Because Santander rejected his qualifying offer from the Orioles, Toronto will lose their second-highest draft pick in 2025 and $500,000 in international bonus pool room. However that’s a relatively small price to pay to add an impact bat in perhaps the most important season in recent Blue Jays history.
With franchise cornerstone Vladimir Guerrero Jr. still without a contract extension, and the club coming off a last place finish in the AL East, Toronto needs to have a bounce back campaign if they have any hope of retaining the services of their homegrown star. While Santander might not move the needle like a Sasaki, Burnes or Soto would, his bat will help insulate a lineup that struggled to generate runs for large stretches of the season in 2024.
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.