Blue Jays outfielder Anthony Santander is scheduled for left labral surgery on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. He’s set to miss the next five to six months of action. Santander had a setback in January as he prepared for the upcoming campaign. Toronto hopes to get him back before the end of the season.
Left shoulder inflammation cost Santander two months during his first year with the Blue Jays. A back injury bumped him off the ALCS roster and ended his season. After signing a five-year, $92.5MM deal, Santander suited up in just 59 games for Toronto, including the playoffs.
Santander struggled mightily at the plate when available. He slashed .175/.271/.294 with six home runs across 221 plate appearances. The switch-hitter was coming off a career campaign with the Orioles, slugging 44 home runs and taking home Silver Slugger honors. He remained on the free agent market deep into January before ultimately securing a five-year commitment from the Blue Jays.
The 31-year-old Santander split his time between outfield and DH last season. He made 22 appearances on the grass and 30 at designated hitter. Toronto also threw him out there for an inning at first base. Santander has graded out as an average to subpar defender in recent years. Outs Above Average had him at -2 in 2025, while Defensive Runs Saved gave him a neutral grade.
General manager Ross Atkins told reporters the club is “not significantly” involved in the market for an outfielder following the Santander injury. As the roster currently stands, Addison Barger and Nathan Lukes are penciled in at the corner outfield spots against right-handed pitching. Davis Schneider will be a factor against lefties, with Myles Straw serving as a late-inning defensive replacement. George Springer is set to hold down DH duties.
Mitch Bannon of The Athletic was among those to report Santander’s injury and timeline. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reported Atkins’ comments about an outfield addition.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images
Ouch. That contract is looking like quite the bag of bad luck for the Blue jays.
Certainly looks like a bag of something
You are the resident sack/bag expert on this site, so I trust your judgement.
He’s a Red Sox troll. Pay him no mind.
Another guy coming off his best or second best season in his walk year who turned into a free agent bust. What a surprise.
Don’t sign Boras clients for big money with first name Anthony.
As many of us in Baltimore could have predicted. Good job, Mike Elias.
As much as I love Tony Taters it was pretty obvious not to give him this big of a deal. Just for him im still hoping he gets healthy and has another shot at earning it
I wasn’t sad we didn’t offer it but even I didn’t think it would be this much of a boat anchor so far. I figured they’d get a couple decent years.
He signed for five years. They’re not even halfway through! For all you know, years 3-5 will be fantastic
Uh huh
Brutal contract
If not, it’ll do ’til the brutal contract gets here.
No Country for Old Men is one of the great novels of the 21st century.
Santander teeing it up to be Toronto’s version of Kris Bryant.
Almost Chris Davis bad.
Are we fr
Oy.
Well that’s one way to raise your WAR…
35.4 M down the drain..so far.
That’s almost a single season’s pay for Rendon. He flushes money down the drain quite a bit faster.
Hopefully it’s insured so it’s not a loss haha
This will go down as the worst contract in Jays history.
Vernon wells would like a word
mic drop
Looks like the Blue Jays front office didn’t do their homework before giving him a huge contract. Money down the drain.
Yes the homework of him getting injured.
Just saying stuff to say stuff
They paid almost $100M and gave up a draft pick to sign the present-day equivalent of Scott Schebler
Hat tip for the Scott Schebler reference!
SS catching a stray!
Find me a team without a bad contract and I’ll show you a team who hasn’t signed a free agent
oh boy
Bet the Jays regret not making a move to get a bat this offseason lol.
They got Okamoto. I hope I spelled this right.
Jay’s lost Bo their #1 rbi guy last year
Bo batted a league high .381 with runners in scoring position last year.
There’s zero certainty with that though.
Never give a long term contract to a guy named Anthony.
*first named
That’s just the tip of the jays injury ice berg. Keegan and Arden dropped some other bombs. Beiber is being delayed due to forearm fatigue and Francis is undergoing TJ
But ya this contract is done
He’s in year two of five, chill
Nick Castellanos may have found a new home
It’s not that bleak…..their not the guardians
We already had one DH having to play the field with both Santander and Springer. This will just open up more playing time for Lukes and Schneider, who id rather play over Castellanos.
Schneider is a Quad-A player, according to Keith Law.
Not a lot of luck with free agents named Anthony.
Oof
40% of that contract officially a wash. Nice.
it’s just money. when you convert the Canadian dollars… it’s just like league minimum. just think of how many more fans and viewers Rogers will have when China makes the Canadians get rid of hockey and the Stanley Cup.
At least be funny if you’re going to be a troll
Blue Jays players are also paid in USD 🤔
The way things are going…they might be farther ahead in a couple of years being paid in Chinese Yuan…
China makes Canada get rid of Hockey? Okay Whatever.
This is an outrage with spring training starting next week and all! Or this week whenever it starts.
check your sewers toronto citizens
there’s $92 mil floating around after being flushed down the toilet
This is starting out as one of the worst contracts in MLB history. Plenty of time to turn it around but what a rough start.
This contract is turning into a disaster
@Astro A disaster is when my Angels signed Rendon
Holy moly. It just keeps getting worse. I was really curious to see what kind of year he was going to have. A guy like Rendon wouldn’t blink an eye about it but I know he’s got to feel absolutely sick over this.
Did he trip on a Cheeto at a Super Bowl party? How is this being found out now??
I certainly don’t know all the answers, but it looks like the setback just happened a couple weeks ago. Probably had a few doc appointments, second opinions, etc. Team probably knew all this, but it’s just being announced to us now.
Most likely they knew about it awhile back and tried to rehab it. It’s not a conspiracy
He naturally delayed his surgery date to coincide with his first day back to work. Of course he wanted a free offseason with his family , wouldn’t you? Instead of being laid up all off-season and curtail vacationing in Aruba and what not. It’s only a natural response to a common work/life balance issue.
He got hurt ramping up in January
Of course, that’s what happened. Wasn’t his shoulder an issue last season? It’s why his power went to zilch.
Yes, and?
I believe he knew going into the offseason that surgery was a likely necessity. Makes perfect sense to push it out so you can enjoy a relatively normal offseason with the fam. Surgery’s are often pushed out anyways as it is normally the last and most dire option on the table. You cross-off every lesser remedy in the interim.
This makes no sense to anyone but you.
Maybe you think this way because it’s how you operate but not likely for others
You can’t believe everything you read. The Press and the Fanbase need to be “massaged” at certain times. It would probably look bad to some folks if the complete and unvarnished truth had to be told at all times. It’s not like he did anything wrong anyways.
He probably was sitting down and then strained something.
Contract sucked either way…but at least they’ll have a roster spot available now. This is the silver lining.
Yeah I don’t think it’s that bad that we don’t have to see him in the OF for a large majority of the season. Besides the 12 million towards the tax this isn’t that big of a loss from last years team.
Oooh. Imagine they had his money back. They could have given it to Bregman or Bichette or Tucker. Damn
I think they had the cash to sign all three if they wanted to…I think all three told Atkins “thanks, but no thanks.”
Darn, tough luck.
See you in 2027 Tony!
I’m not sure, but this may complicate their trying to trade him
Oh, that’s brutal for Tony. Sucky news.
Sorry man
Feels like he was kind of blocking a young guy from playing every day.
Which Quad-A guy ? The guy with the goggles?
Barger is now the RF. So he’s one
What the Tucker?
I still haven’t gotten over the fact that when they signed him, Blue Jays fans were making insane comparisons to Hall of Famer about how great this guy was. Only San Francisco Giants fans rival the Blue Jays fans in terms of overhyping whoever they sign to be superstars.
None of that happened.
It 109% did, that’s why I still remember it. It made me laugh so hard, Blue Jays pdcasts in particular went nuts though that recent Giant podcast that asked why Luis Arráez is not in the same conversation about great hitters that Ohtani and Judge are is definitely setting an overhyped bar. The only reason I follow those teams podcast is because I know something crazy is gonna be said.
Well you should be able to provide some proof then
It was more we needed left handed power and he checked the box and after missing on Shohai and Soto….he was kinda the best of what was available.
In retrospect clearly terrible but I don’t recall hof comparisons. Certainly a lot of optimism. But that’s the off season for every market.
Now in April and May the jays broadcast and media teams kept pumping out the he’s a slow starter message….he never did get going of course.
What a bust
This was their desperation signing after missing out on Ohtani, Soto to stop criticism by the fanbase and they are paying a terrible price, he was still a free agent in late January for a reason, I bet teams worried he’d be the type who slacks off as far as taking care of his body after being paid
My read as well. They overpay and then pretend that because he has a big contract he’s a big player. Truth was Santander was always a meh sign that they made because everyone else turned them down.
I don’t know it makes a lot of difference though. I see them having a hard time fighting the O’s and maybe Rays for third and fourth spot. Their pitching is thin. Toronto fans acted as though Bieber left millions on the table when it was obvious he was hurt. Their pitching will be thin, their hitting will retreat to career averages, and they’ve lost Bichette. They don’t have a shortstop.
By July their fans will be getting on Cease because he’s not an ace. Their rookie pitcher will be having trouble when hitters lay off low pitches. They’ll have Gausman, and Berrios who is not very good. Yikes.
Bingo! You sir just won “The Best Right Answer of the Day” here at MLBTR. And you articulated it so well. I just need your home address so I can send you your prize; this coupon for 15% off a Lunch Buffet at the Town & Country Buffet in Toronto it’s John Schneider’s favorite pre-game hangout.
Doesn’t matter. Jays will be done by August
You mean like last year?
It’s because of last year. They won’t be able to rebound with all the extra innings the pitchers had to throw last season. Commonly referred to as the “Post Season Hangover”
I could see the Jays likely returning to their 2020-2023 level of good but not great
The only difference between those teams and last year was catching fire in the playoffs which literally no one can predict
Well they were better positioned heading into the playoffs last year compared to previous years. #1 seed throughout vs having to play in that 50/50 wild card game. I guess the good news for Toronto is no team in the AL East separated themselves in the off-season.
For sure but that has as much to do with competition as anything else, which will be the case next year. If they win 94 games again in 2026 no guarantee they win the division
Tony Taters isn’t looking like a good contract now. Hopefully the Jays are able to salvage at least the back half of his contract…
Tony Taters will be manning the fry machine in the Rogers Centre food court…
The Jays won a lot of games without him and despite his bad year when he was out there. I think a lot of their success offensively especially was because they’re a team that puts the ball in play and makes things happen. Santander is a boom or bust guy. I liked what Lukes brought to that lineup and they can get some other guys more burn that quite frankly, bring more to the table. The money they spent on him looks bad, sure. But as far as on the field results, I don’t think it’s that big of a loss.
Orioles dodged a bullet with him
From what i remember, they did ok without him last season.
Looks like they really did need Ohtani, despite what the fans were chanting.
Unless Ohtani was closing games for them, wouldn’t have made a difference.
Ok, how do Jays react? My suggestion after both Francis and Santander go to long term disabled list, resign Bassitt for 1 year( I suspect he already knew Francis/Bieber injury issues and has been waiting for things to be official) and sign RHer Mike Tauchman to rotate with Lukes/Loperfido in LF. He can be signed for limited $$$ for 1 year. His numbers in limited ABs last year were good.
Bassitt for sure is a fit because he could easily slot in to the pen down the stretch again
Correction on Tauchman, he’s actually LH. Looks like Jays are back to rotating Schneider with Lukes/Loperfido in LF. Worked great last year. Hopefully Santander heals well and can DH in 2027 with Springers free agency.
Barger is the RF. Easy solution.
Just great…
I’m not even upset at having an excuse to not play him.
Ooff, swinging and missing on Tucker looks worse now.
I love Anthony but I had my doubts when he was crediting chiropractors
and alternative medicine for his improved health 2 years ago. I Guess
Mike Elias et al now feels vindicated. The same may apply to Jeff Hoffman down the road. Anthony was the heart and soul of the O’s in 2023-2024.
I miss his post game interviews with “my boy!” Spanish translator Q,
Brandon Quinones after another game winner. Keep spending recklessly
Jays!
WORST CONTRACT IN MLB HISTORY!
So…he still has a right arm.
Perhaps he could use it to vacuum the seed shells from the clubhouse,
Knew the Santander deal was going to be terrible
Time for the Jays to reach out to Cards or Marlins to see what they want for either Nootbaar or Stowers
The unraveling begins.
the Jays are not winning the division next year. they saw the O’s get better, Sox get better, and yanks basically stay the course with pitching reinforcements coming. yes they have pitching help but the lineup basically all had career or close to career years. they were anticipating Santander bouncing back so that they didn’t have to rely on schneider and Luke’s to produce again.
they can still be a playoff team potentially but doubt they win the division.
what they should do is sign bassitt. with Bieber hurt, they are relying too much on Berrios and Lauer to carry the backend and Ponce to produce like in Asia. Bassitt would bring stability and can be shifted back again if Ponce works out for the season and Bieber returns.
Its not that bad, its only 97mill. Its year 2/5. He’ll be back by end of year hopefully and replace Springer in 2027.
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)