Kansas City reportedly offered Santander a three-year deal worth $66 million. The Royals weren’t able to present Santander with the contract in time, because the slugger ended up heading north of the border to Toronto.
The Blue Jays and Santander recently agreed to a five-year deal for a whopping $92.5 million. Toronto made Santander a top priority after the club missed out on the Juan Soto sweepstakes.
The Blue Jays are pushing to gain ground in the AL East once again, after finishing the 2024 season with a 74-88 record. Toronto is also rumored to be adding an experienced arm this offseason in hurler Max Scherzer.
The Royals finished the year with a 86-76 record.
Can Anthony Santander lead the Blue Jays to an ALCS?
Santander is a hard-hitting outfielder who will definitely add pop to the Blue Jays lineup. He had a strong season in 2024, despite not garnering the same headlines as Juan Soto. Santander played for Baltimore this past season.
This offseason, several teams tried to sign him. The Royals are one of many clubs who didn’t get the deal done with the outfielder.
The outfielder finished the year with 44 home runs, and 102 runs batted in. He posted a .235 batting average, but still slashed 140 hits. The Orioles made the postseason with Santander and others, but lost in the AL playoffs. The Blue Jays didn’t make the playoffs, and the Royals lost to the Yankees in the postseason.
“They have a pretty good team, they want to win and they want to get back to the playoffs,” Santander said about Toronto, per MLB.com. “It’s important to me to make that move. There’s a winning mentality. The city is great. The environment at Rogers Centre is amazing. I’m going to bring what I learned in Baltimore the last two years, being in the playoffs, and share that with my new brothers here.”
Toronto will need Santander to keep up his production. The Blue Jays have pushed to spend big money on free agents in the last few years, but lost out on Soto as well as Shohei Ohtani. Santander is considered one of the centerpieces of the team’s offense moving forward, along with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.
“Anthony is about as good of a fit as we can find,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said. “Doing it from both sides of the plate, putting the ball in the seats a regular amount. His ability to do damage on a nightly basis is exactly what we were looking for. He’s a great addition to this lineup.”
Blue Jays fans are certainly hoping the future for the team is bright.