Blue Jays already have their big bat in Anthony Santander? Nobody's banking on it

As the quest to land an impact bat for the top of the order continues into what could become crunch time of the offseason, the Blue Jays are also faced with enduring year two of a fat contract handed to a man signed to provide just that.

As we close in on the first anniversary of the five-year, $92.5 million US deal the team gifted Anthony Santander to boost the team’s offence, both the value and even the future of that deal is very much in doubt.

Santander’s dud of a debut season in Toronto is certainly one of the factors the team is heavily engaged in the pursuit of Kyle Tucker and their own former all star, Bo Bichette, to be a part of an offence constructed to repeat as American League champions.

“Tony is going to be huge for us,” manager John Schneider said at the Winter Meetings earlier this month, taking an approach heavily weighted in optimism. “Speaking to him at the end of the year and in the postseason, he battled just to get back. He wanted to be part of it so bad.

“(With) a five-year deal, he wanted to get off on the right foot. It didn’t happen.”

That would be an understatement, of course.

Santander, who was signed as protection for Vlad Guerrero Jr. at the top of the Toronto lineup and as prolific home run bat, appeared in just 54 regular season games and essentially disappeared hitting just six homers with a skimpy .175 batting average.

Dogged by a mysterious shoulder injury through the guts of the season, Santander was a big-money bust as his new team succeeded despite of him.

“He was disappointed. We’re disappointed,” Schneider said following the World Series.

What to do with Santander in 2026?

On the surface, Santander seems like the forgotten man in the Jays lineup as we’re now just six weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Dunedin, Fla. for spring training.

That’s not entirely true – the Jays front office is reminded of his presence every time it glances at the payroll.

And the team hasn’t completely given up on Santander — nor should it. With that in mind, the 31-year-old will be given enough runway early in the season to see if he can channel that form that made him so attractive a year ago when he was coming off a 48-homer season with the Baltimore Orioles.

Where he fits in what could be a crowded group remains to be seen, but the Jays will also factor in Santander’s notorious (and frustrating) career tendency to have a dormant bat early in the season.

If he doesn’t snap out of it and perform the way he’s paid to do, however, don’t be surprised if the Jays move on from him if it comes to that and others are producing.

“He is motivated,” Schneider said at the Winter Meetings. “He is hungry to get back to the player we know he is. He’s a big part of what we’re doing. I’ve told him this: ‘I don’t want you to think you have to do anything you don’t do well. You don’t have to come back and hit .300 with 50 homers to make up for last year.’

“We need Tony to fit in the way we know he can when we signed him.”

How did Santander’s season end?

In short, almost as poorly as it began.

After what indeed was a slow start, Santander spent close to three months sidelined with a shoulder injury that was significantly worse than first diagnosed and reported by the team.

Given that he had been on the IL since May 29, by the start of September, Santander was the forgotten man in a team that was charging towards locking up an American League East title.

To his credit, he battled hard to become a late-season factor, activated on Sept. 24 and even working his way into the postseason lineup. That status lasted briefly when he was removed from the Jays ALCS lineup with a back injury prior to Game 4, ending his season.

Fast forward to November and December and the Jays’ much reported pursuit of Tucker, Bichette (and to a lesser extent, Alex Bregman) confirms the team wisely isn’t counting on a Santander renaissance.

What’s next for Santander?

Privately for the Jays, a hope and a prayer that Santander can be healthy to start and then prove capable of injecting some of the offence the Jays will be paying him $11.8 million US this year to provide.

Publicly, there is some early optimism.

“Shoulder is good. Back is good,” Schneider said by way of a medical update in early December. “He finally feels normal, so that’s a good thing.

“Just get him in here and have a normal spring training, hopefully.  The notorious slow starter that he is, hopefully we can speed the process up and hit the ground running.”

If that happens, it will become decision time, with another of factors defining Santander’s role – from how the rest of the season unfolds in terms of acquisitions, to how management and the coaching staff intend to employ the players so integral to the 2025 success, to George Springer’s status as the dynamic DH that led the team for much of last season.