The Toronto Blue Jays don’t appear to be done this off-season.
On the pitching side of things, they’ve signed Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, and Tyler Rogers, while recently also signing Kazuma Okamoto to play third base, first base, and even some outfield.
Still, it feels like the Blue Jays need to add one more bat. One of their best hitters in 2025, Bo Bichette, remains a free agent and the team is reportedly still interested in him, even if he’s less of fit than he was last week. Of course, Kyle Tucker is the best bat on the market and it’d be wise to add him to the roster, as he is everything the Blue Jays love in a player, and also what they need.
Bonus points if they’re somehow able to add both players, as you can argue that’d be one of the best off-seasons of all-time. Granted, that seems incredibly unlikely, as the Jays would probably need to move some money to make that work.
José Berríos’ name has come up a few times this off-season, with Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith going as far to say that the Jays would listen to offers. Another player who could be an option is Anthony Santander, right? Wrong.
Look, there’s no sugar coating that the first year of his five-year, $92 million deal was a bad one. A notorious slow starter, the switch hitting outfielder slashed .175/.271/.294 with six home runs in 221 plate appearances for a 61 wRC+ and -0.9 fWAR. He wasn’t any better in the postseason, registering three singles in 16 plate appearances before being removed from the Jays’ American League Championship roster due to an injury.
It’s a far cry from what he offered in 2024, and it sure looks like that contract will blow up in the Jays’ face, at least on a surface level. That said, there are a handful of reasons to be optimistic about Santander’s 2026 season.
Injury, a slow start, and regression to the mean
I’ve already mentioned how Santander is a notoriously slow starter. The best season of his career was in 2024, where he slashed .235/.308/.506 with 44 home runs in 665 plate appearances. Well, that April, he slashed .213/.289/.426 with four home runs in 121 plate appearances for a 103 wRC+.
For his entire career, Santander is slashing .204/.285/.360 with 16 home runs in 583 plate appearances in the month of April (and the few games in March.) There’s only one month where Santander has more plate appearances in his career, August, while the 16 home runs in the first month is the fewest of any month. Only Santander’s 79 wRC+ in September/October is lower than Santander’s 81 wRC+ in the month of March/April.
Unsurprisingly, Santander got off to a slow start in 2025, slashing .175/.258/.316 with four home runs in 128 plate appearances. However, from Apr. 27 until May 8, Santander slashed .227/.320/.455 with three home runs in 50 plate appearances and looked to be breaking out of his slump.
Why is May 8 important? Well, he missed the next four days of action with a shoulder injury. Later in May, he also had a hip injury, as he was eventually placed on the injured list. From May 13 until he was placed on the injured list, Santander slashed .122/.265/.195 in 49 plate appearances with one home run , which happened to come in the Blue Jays’ largest comeback on May 20.
He didn’t have a great go of things when he returned in late September, nor did he find much success in the playoffs. During the ALCS, he was removed from their roster, ending his season. During the Winter Meetings, Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider noted that Santander is starting to feel normal.
Anthony Santander’s back and shoulder “finally feel normal” Schneider said.
“Tony is going to be huge for us.”#BlueJays
— Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) December 9, 2025
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It’s hard to look at Santander’s 2025 season and not be disappointed. There is obviously still concern about his health heading into the 2026 season, but it’s a clean slate. If Santander can return to his 2022-2024 form, where he hit the sixth-most home runs in the big leagues during that stretch, that’ll be huge for the bat, and he should absolutely get the chance to prove he can be that player.
Fit
From 2022-2024, Santander slashed .244/.317/.478 with 105 home runs in 1,968. Only Matt Olson, Pete Alonso, Kyle Schwarber, Shohei Ohtani, and Aaron Judge hit more home runs in these three seasons. Of the six players, guess which player had the lowest strike out rate? It was Santander.
The outfielder has a different profile than what the Blue Jays love, he isn’t a player who makes a ton of contact, barely strikes out, nor does he hits for an average. Yet, his K% of 20.5% from 2022-2024 is rather low for a slugger, with just Yordan Álvarez and Juan Soto posting a lower K% for the nine players who hit 100 or more home runs in this span.
What Santander lacks in contact skills, he makes up with in power, as he has a legitimate chance of leading the team in home runs unless Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has a season like he did in 2021.
With the bat, he’s certainly a fit, because having that type of power at the bottom of your lineup who can also switch hits is incredibly important. But he can even fit their defensive scheme if George Springer continues to serve as their designated hitter. That includes if they sign Kyle Tucker and/or Bo Bichette
Santander is not a good fielder, simply put. In his 4,336 career innings in right field, he has 8 Defensive Runs Saved, -6 Outs Above Average, and -10 Fielding Run Value. He isn’t much better in left field (-6 DRS, -7 OAA, -8 FRV), but that is due in large part to 299 rough innings in 2022.
Last season, Santander played 58 innings in left field, finishing with 2 DRS, 0 OAA, and 1 FRV. It’s a small sample size, but if he can be serviceable in left field for one season, until Springer’s contract ends, the power potential is well worth it.
Let’s say they add just Tucker, Santander would play left field, Daulton Varsho would play centre field, and Tucker would play right field, while Addison Barger platoons with Kazuma Okamoto at third base and Clement plays second base. If they somehow get both Tucker and Bichette, the latter would slide to second base, while Clement roams around the field in a super utility role.
Contract
Without breaking down his contract, a five-year deal worth $92 million after the season he just had looks like one of the worst contracts in baseball. That’s not the case. On top of the potential of a rebound given his track record, the contract is favourable for the Blue Jays.
The cash isn’t necessarily important for them, given the team is owned by Rogers and there is a ton of money that’ll be handed out thanks to deferrals.. What is important is his luxury tax salary, as he each season of the five-year deal, he has a luxury tax hit of $13.72 million according to Spotrac and a little over $14.3 million according to Fangraphs.
If you’re wondering about the Blue Jays luxury tax situation, there’ll well over the tax threshold of $244 million, and are already over the first tax penalty ($284 million). No doubt, they’ll even go over the third penalty of $304 million, likely once arbitration is finished.
All of this is to say that Santander’s luxury tax hit is a drop in the bucket, and well worth it if he can find the form he had from 2022-2024. Barring injuries, expect a bounce-back from the switch-hitter.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney