Blue Jays sign slugging OF Santander to 5-year deal

TORONTO — The Blue Jays have finally found a finish line with a player who’s made sense all along, agreeing to terms on a five-year deal with outfielder Anthony Santander.

The deal was announced by the club late Monday as a five-year, $92.5 million contract, and according to Santander’s agency, it includes an opt-out for Santander with an escalated option provision that could bring the deal to six years and $110 million in total.

Santander represents the immediate offensive boost the Blue Jays’ lineup needs and should slide in right behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is entering his final year of club control and is positioned for another big year. This offseason, Santander did just what Guerrero is hoping to do by hitting the market at exactly the right time.

Santander is no mystery to the Blue Jays or their fans, fresh off a 44-homer season with the Orioles. That power is real, delivering 28 and 33 home runs the two seasons prior, and that element is desperately needed in Toronto to complement a lineup that has otherwise focused more on contact. Once Juan Soto landed with the Mets in December, the Blue Jays shifted their attention to the second tier of hitters on the market, and it’s useful to compare Santander to old friend Teoscar Hernández, who was another option.

While Hernández was still beloved by many within the organization — and rightfully so — Santander came with better contact rates and gives Toronto a lefty bat as a switch-hitter. Santander has been the Blue Jays’ “type” all along, and finally, they’ve put a square peg in a square hole.

Santander’s defensive fit isn’t quite as clear, but that’s a secondary matter. The 30-year-old has graded out as a below-average defender with the Orioles playing primarily right field, but the Blue Jays still have George Springer for two more seasons. Santander does have some experience in left, where Joey Loperfido and Davis Schneider are currently the top options, and Toronto’s DH spot is wide open, which will play a factor here.

The money works here for the Blue Jays, too, particularly given how many contracts they have scheduled to come off their books in the next two years. This organization still needs to determine what its next competitive era looks like, and while that will need to include waves of young talent to form the foundation, the Blue Jays now have Santander in place as a rock-solid veteran option to add pieces around.

Because Santander rejected a qualifying offer from the Orioles, Baltimore will receive a pick after the first round in the 2025 MLB Draft. The Blue Jays will forfeit their second-highest selection and $500,000 from their international bonus pool.

This also has to come as an incredible relief to the Blue Jays’ fan base, which has been put through a cruel stretch of news over the past 14 months.

First, it was the Shohei Ohtani saga, then more recently the club’s unsuccessful pursuits of Soto and Corbin Burnes. Friday, the Blue Jays fell short in their bid for young Japanese star Roki Sasaki, even after making a trade with the Guardians earlier that day to add more international bonus pool space while taking on the contract of Myles Straw, who couldn’t find a spot on the big league roster in Cleveland. It was a bad day at the end of a bad month at the end of a bad year.

Now, with Santander, this organization has taken a much-needed step in the right direction. While he brings the track record and reputation of a player who can stabilize the Blue Jays’ floor, Santander also brings the pop that can raise their ceiling. There’s no sense signing Santander to this deal as the Blue Jays’ final “big” move, either. Especially with Guerrero and Bo Bichette in what could be their final years in Toronto, the time has always been now to push aggressively, and the Santander deal makes that even clearer.

The Blue Jays could still use another offensive upgrade, another high-end reliever and an MLB-caliber starter to round out their rotation depth. Some of the club’s recent free-agent pursuits have shown that the money is clearly there if the Blue Jays choose to spend it, but for now, the organization and its fans can put a tick in the win column.