The Blue Jays announced that outfielder Anthony Santander has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation. Fellow outfielder Alan Roden has been recalled as the corresponding move.
The Jays signed Santander to a five-year, $92.5MM deal this offseason. Heavy deferrals reportedly knock the net present value closer to $70MM but it was still the club’s biggest offseason splash as they looked to bounce back from a disappointing 2024 season.
They haven’t received much from that investment so far. Santander has six home runs and has drawn walks at an 11.5% clip but has a 26.3% strikeout rate and a .179/.273/.304 batting line. That amounts to a 67 wRC+, indicating he’s been 33% worse than the league average hitter at the plate.
Santander’s .218 batting average on balls in play is really low but he’s also hitting the ball with less authority than before. He barreled up 11.7% of pitches last year but that mark is down to 4.6% this year. His current 40.8% hard hit rate would be his lowest since 2020. It’s possible that he hasn’t been fully healthy for a while. He was out of the lineup on May 10th with manager John Schneider describing his shoulder as “a little cranky”, per Mitch Bannon of The Athletic. He also missed some time due to hip soreness this month.
Ideally, a bit of rest will get him healthy and back on track. Last year, he hit 44 homers for the Orioles while only striking out 19.4% of the time and drawing walks at an 8.7% clip. That led to a .235/.308/.506 line and 129 wRC+. The Jays were surely hoping to get something resembling that level of production but haven’t gotten it yet.
The club has George Springer and Daulton Varsho in two outfield spots, while Nathan Lukes, Jonatan Clase and Myles Straw are also in the mix. Roden now comes up and joins that group, who will be jockeying for playing time in one of the outfield corners as well as the designated hitter slot. Roden cracked the Opening Day roster and hit just .178/.262/.260 in his first 84 big league plate appearances. He was then optioned down to Buffalo, where he has been mashing, putting up a .361/.446/.583 line for the Bisons.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
About time he just focus on recovering
About damn time. It was beyond obvious he couldn’t swing the bat, why they waited this long is anybody’s guess.
“About damn time..couldn’t swing the bat”..Since you’re clearly an insider that knows more than the MLB staff that sees and treats Santander daily.
why don’t you fill us in on how and when the injury occurred. And of course, with all your inside “knowledge”, could you possibly recommend a treatment plan?
The injury occurred several weeks ago (I believe) when he banged into a wall several times making plays in a game. Since then, he’s had ongoing injury issues that have had him in and out of the lineup sporadically and frankly looking ‘not right’. He’s had both hip and shoulder inflammation issues ever since the initial wall impacts. This has been reported on by Jays sideline reporters and broadcasters.
This is becoming a trend with Jays medical/management. They “trust” their players and have left them in various games when players clearly should be pulled.
A few weeks ago, George Springer injured his wrist on a swing and could barely hold a bat, yet talked his way into staying in, only to be unable to swing the bat and dropping it after striking out several pitches later. Luckily there appeared to be no long term damage and he came back a few days later, but that was needlessly risky on management’s part.
Tyler Heineman was concussed in a game a few days ago after getting struck square in the face with foul balls twice. The second one clearly knocked him sideways and looked ugly. The Jays did quick tests and left him in the rest of the game. He’s now currently out and going through the concussion protocol.
A team can pull a player for his own safety, whether he passes the tests or not. For whatever reason, the Jays like to leave their players in no matter how much they should be pulled.
Have you watched him? They even said he was fighting through something recently and it’s been talked about for over a week on radio here. I’m not pretending to be some guru, it’s been pretty noticeable.
Chill
Yes, yes he is.
He’s got an atrocious slash line. Dude is worth negative WAR…
He’s basically Carlos Quentin with a bonus….
(more strikeouts)
Probably Mark Prior’s fault.
I think most knew that Santander would not be a good free agent investment, but the Blue Jays just HAD to have one, no matter who it was. cant blame em.
@Blah blah blah
He wouldn’t be a good free agent investment because of … his past performance???
Because in his walk year he performed better than he had in several years. It usually happens this way when that walk-year spike occurs. Similar to Eduardo Rodriguez last year and countless others since free agency began.
This is the optimal “addition by subtraction” move for the Blue Jays as it should significantly improve their lineup
So Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins, and Anthony Santander are all placed on the IL the same day. The Orioles Opening Day outfield last year.
@geotheo
Freezing deep state !!! ;o)
@mlb fan
Everybody watching could tell.
If you dont watch, then should probably put a cork in it.
Oof.
He had 3 years of excellent production then comes to us and looks like he is up there blind folded. Hopefully he comes back with his homerun stroke back.
Excellent is a stretch. He was an above average player but not a guy pitchers probably were afraid of.
Excellent last year when he was playing for his new contract
@hammerin weird how that works for players isn’t it?
When a player has an OBP 100+ points above their batting average and that player has a good track record it’s a very safe assumption they are just experiencing bad luck over a small sample size.
He should be hitting better, but the baseline right now is a .577 OPS. Even adding 120 points to account for luck, still leaves a pretty bad OPS.
For sure, and no doubt he was hurt and pressing. But when a player is taking their walks like they always do it shows they still have good pitch recognition. To me, when the walks start dropping and the Ks start piling up then it’s time to worry.
This was a terrible signing by the Jays and I called it back in February.
mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/blue-jays-to-sign-antho…
Then I wrote about it 4-weeks ago as well.
mlbtraderumors.com/2025/05/poll-anthony-santanders…
Guy’s cooked.
Yeah, it wasn’t a great signing. Santander has always hit a lot of home runs, but not done much else.
Jays are better without him clogging up the middle of the lineup.