The Blue Jays are interested free agent outfielder Anthony Santander, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Nightengale also mentions that the club is pursuing top pitchers like Corbin Burnes and Max Fried. The club has previously been connected to top free agent starters such as Fried and Blake Snell in recent weeks, so Burnes being on the list as well is aligned with those interests.
The connection with Santander is a sensible one. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco predicted the Jays to sign Santander when our Top 50 Free Agents list came out earlier this month. The Jays are a sensible fit for an outfielder and a potent bat, two boxes that would be checked by Santander.
Right now, the Jays have George Springer and Daulton Varsho as the two established big leaguers in their outfield. Varsho underwent shoulder surgery in September and it’s possible that he’ll miss the opening of the 2025 season. Springer is now 35 years old and has seen his wRC+ decline for five straight years now. He had a 155 wRC+ in 2019 but that number has gone to 143, 140, 133, 104 and 95 in recent years.
In addition to those two, the Jays have plenty of other theoretical options to take playing time on the turf. Nathan Lukes, Joey Loperfido, Jonatan Clase, Davis Schneider, Addison Barger and Steward Berroa are all outfield options on the 40-man roster, but there’s not much certainty there. Schneider is the only one with more than 81 big league games on his track record and he’s coming off a frustrating season. In short, there’s plenty of room for the Jays to make an external addition.
More broadly, some home run pop would be welcome in the lineup. The Jays were middle of the pack in terms of wRC+ and on-base percentage in 2024 but were 26th in the majors in terms of home runs, ahead of just the Marlins, Rays, Nationals and White Sox. Only six guys on the club got to double digits with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. the only Blue Jay to get to 20 dingers on the year.
Santander can certainly provide that power, having just hit 44 home runs this past year. With 105 homers over the past three seasons, he’s sixth in the majors for that time frame behind star sluggers Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso and Matt Olson. The Jays have a bunch of key contributors who hit from the right side, such as Guerrero, Springer, Bo Bichette and Alejandro Kirk, so Santander’s switch-hitting ability likely adds to the appeal. He’s not a great defender but he’s slashed .244/.317/.478 over the past three years for a 124 wRC+ and the Jays don’t have a full-time designated hitter, which could allow them to limit the downside of his glovework.
It seems fair to conclude that Santander would be a fallback plan in the event the Jays don’t succeed in landing Juan Soto. The Jays are one of the clubs still plausibly in the mix for Soto, with offers expected to come in this week.
Soto ticks a lot of the same boxes as Santander, as he’s a lefty-swinging outfielder with power, but he’s the more attractive free agent for a few reasons. Soto is far younger, as he is now 26 while Santander is 30. Soto’s elite eye at the plate is also in a different stratosphere compared to Santander. Soto’s 18.8% walk rate in his career is roughly double a normal league average and higher than his 17% strikeout rate. Santander, meanwhile, takes a free pass at a subpar 7.3% clip.
Based on those differences, Soto is going to be Plan A for a lot of clubs, who will then view Santander as a potential safety alongside other free agent outfielders like Teoscar Hernández, Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar and others. While MLBTR predicted Soto for a $600MM guarantee, Santander was projected for a deal of $80MM over four years, obviously far more affordable.
Santander has been connected to the Yankees this winter as one of many players the Yanks could turn to if they don’t get Soto and the Jays likely view their situation similarly. Soto is widely expected to secure a record-breaking contract of some kind, so teams will naturally want to assess their payroll ledgers and consider the domino effects of such a contract before pivoting to other moves.
On the pitching side, the Jays have been connected to a few starting pitchers already, as mentioned. The Jays have a veteran front three in their rotation, with Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt all under contract for 2025. Bowden Francis seems to have earned a rotation gig with his strong second half in 2024. Candidates for the fifth spot include Yariel Rodríguez and Jake Bloss, but Rodríguez also has plenty of relief experience and could be in the bullpen. Bloss still has options and limited experience, not having thrown much in the majors nor the minors.
Adding a pitcher like Fried or Snell or Burnes would obviously strengthen the group. Burnes has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past five years, though he hasn’t been quite as dominant over the past two. From 2020 to 2022, he had a 2.62 earned run average, 33.4% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 47.6% ground ball rate. In the two most recent seasons, it’s been a 3.15 ERA, with his strikeout rate falling to 24.3%.
That’s a bit of a concern but Burnes is still arguably the top pitcher available in free agency this offseason. MLBTR predicted Burnes for $200MM over seven years, with Snell at $160MM over five and Fried at $156MM over six.
There are many ways it could play out but it seems the Jays are setting their sights high after missing out on Ohtani last winter and then having a disappointing season in 2024. It’s also been suggested that the Jays could be quite aggressive this offseason since there are a few potential pivot points coming up. Guerrero, Bichette and Bassitt are all slated for free agency for 2025, while team president Mark Shapiro and manager John Schneider are each going into the final years of their respective deals as well. General manager Ross Atkins is under contract through 2026 though it’s been suggested that he may be under pressure to deliver in the upcoming season in order to stick around.
The Jays had an Opening Day payroll of $225MM last year, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, with RosterResource currently projecting them for $189MM in 2025. Shapiro had previously said he didn’t expect the club’s payroll to significantly increase or decrease relative to 2024, so the Jays could have something in the vicinity of $35MM to spend this offseason on a notable free agent.
Some reporting, including from Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, has pointed to ownership perhaps having a Soto and non-Soto budget. The club was apparently willing to go to greater financial extremes to sign Ohtani last winter but didn’t end up redistributing that money to other players after he signed with the Dodgers. Similarly, the payroll ceiling could be moved up to accommodate a Soto deal but not otherwise.
Regardless of how much money they end up spending this winter, draft pick forfeiture will be another cost the club will have to consider. Each of Soto, Burnes, Fried and Santander rejected a qualifying offer, as did other potential targets like Hernández or Willy Adames. Snell wasn’t eligible to receive a QO this offseason because he already rejected one a year ago.
The Jays are believed to have just snuck under the competitive balance tax in 2024 by trading away some veterans at the deadline, which impacts their penalties for signing a player who rejected a qualifying offer. A tax-paying club has to forfeit $1MM of international bonus pool space as well as its second- and fifth-highest pick in the next draft. If the Jays did indeed go under the CBT line in 2024, those penalties will instead be $500K of pool space and just the second-best draft pick. In recent years, the Jays have been willing to sign players who rejected qualifying offers, doing so with both Springer and Bassitt.
Curious if Soto, Santander & Burnes are all on the same plane?
Soto is flying separate, likely on the same plane Ohtani was on.
Madden Bus
Soto is flying separate, likely on the same plane that Ohtani was on.
Headlines you absolutely hate to see.
Salamander is a big risky signing. Classic contract year swindle I suspect. For the right price he is a good get but for the years he gets and the dozens of holes the Jays need to fill, no.
if he takes 4 years it’s not horrible. the $20 per is likely low though
It would suck to see a quality player like taters on a horrible team like the blue jays
I want to see him in the playoffs not on a 90 loss team
Based on your criteria you can rule the M’s out too.
He’s the same player he’s been throughout his career, and the last three years have been pretty much identical, except for the small bump in HR. The only swindle is the GMs/owners overpaying guys later in their career and getting fans to get pissed about it, when in reality the players were underpaid early on in relation to their talent. Get that big money, Santander!
So every team that is interested in Burnes is also interested in Fried and Snell?
It’s definitely the silly season.
Burnes was seen getting off at Charles and heading for Kelly’s Roast Beef.
Even if the jays somehow manage to throw enough money at Soto to land him they still need more. Santander is the perfect fit. Would play like 2-3 games a week in RF and DH the rest. Their biggest need is a PRIME power bat after that I would desperately scourge the corners of hell to find a bullpen and some pitching depth that has eluded shatkins since joining the jays.
I can’t imagine if they land Soto they cheap out elsewhere. the sell is probably we can compete and plan to upgrade elsewhere as well. now if they lose Soto, it’s quite likely they cheap out like last year and this team is stuck in purgatory again.
Money – Actually next year is basically a last ditch effort to win with their current core, so I do believe they will spend and go all out. If they offer enough money to Soto, and extend his BFF Vladdy, that combined with the lure of the exchange rate could motivate Soto to sign with them.
If they don’t land Soto or make the postseason next year, I think they break up the core and go into rebuild mode. Probably let Bo or Vladdy walk.
I’m selfishly hoping the Blue Jays can’t sign anyone good and go into sell mode. Bring Vlad to the Ms!
Also. Just looking at the Jays situation. I think a reboot is necessary. I highly doubt Vlad goes back if he makes it to FA
Which is why Shatkins has to do all that it takes to go win now mode this offseason. The jays have a garbage system that was helped by their sell off at the deadline but still pretty weak on top level talent. They need to do whatever it takes to put a competitive roster together to get Vlad to sign. If he doesn’t by trade deadline the team gets blown up to the point the payroll resembles the As
the confusing thing to me is that they haven’t reached an extension with Vlad. if he is a selling point for Soto, having him locked up makes sense. clearly this FO isn’t confident in their team or system and are hoping an FA signing makes the difference and are willing to blow it up if they fail in their pursuits.
talk about “tipping your pitches”
The annual “Jays are interested in every FA” begins. Joke organization.
most orgs are. and I’d rather have my team listen and be interested in everyone than no one. NOW, that being said, a repeat of last year where they lose out on THE GUY and then patch up the holes with duct tape is the problem. AA as gm listened on everyone and called on everyone, it’s the only way you know prices.
Look at it from a FA ballplayers point of view….why would you be interested in speaking to a team that is supposedly talking to every free agent out there…..would make me and my agent wonder if we could possibly get the best deal to sign or is the team listening to every FA holding on to $$$money to sign someone else besides me…….pivoting to plug holes is definitely as strategy teams follow, but when it comes to the top line FA’s, a better plan must be hatched other than openly speaking to everybody…..expecially when everybody isn’t necessarily a good fit for the team other than meeting financial goals.
Asking about everyone is how the Jays determine prices. I beleive that they are using a math algoritum to value players. They insert the prices of the current FA market and then the rest fall into place in their algorithum.
And that algorithm has definitely led to lots of success right?
While not a great defender by any stretch of the imagination he is a sneaky good defender. He makes the hard plays look easy but sometimes makes the easy plays look hard.
How have the Blue Jays not gotten the memo that it’s time to rebuild?
It’s really wild. They’re cooked.
because they could spend their way into contention. the problem is last year they didn’t spend effectively nor did they tear down.
this year is literally boom or bust for them.
Also because they are typically a well run organization. Not only will they spend, but they’ll sell when appropriate. Rebuilds are for cheap owners and organizations that need to rebuild their entire systems (including upper management).
If the Blue Jays played in a different division that might be possible but not in the AL East. They’re the worst team in the division by a considerable margin and they also have a weak farm system
Jays reboot is necessary. Soto would be great in Toronto but he isn’t coming. As with Ohtani, he has two cities in mind and only two and Toronto isn’t one of them.
Jays need a thumper power bat who can play defense at either 3rd or outfield. Springer is almost done.
Jays need a trio of power arm relievers, one a shut down.
Jays need to upgrade the catcher. They traded the wrong guy. Kirk is okay but can you win with him?
The Jays need at least two for quality starting pitcher depth. Adding a star will be great but it won’t get it done with virtually zero starters ready in the minors.
The Jays need a new executive leadership team. The President, GM, VP Scouting and VP Baseball Strategy all gotta go. It’s time.
Insert “Red Sox” into that post for “Jays” and you get a snap shot of the AL East.
Please don’t report anything but an acquisition. This is very annoying.
this is mlbtraderumors.com, you want mlbacquisitionreports.com
One other thing Shaprio likes to do. He has done it for years. He talks about competing but he is not the slightest bit interested in competing. He does it as a part of his schtick to secure the maximum business return that he can get for ownership. He does that to secure his job. He doesn’t secure his job by assembling winners. Look at his previous 25 years in baseball.
Like when he won Executive of the Year twice in Cleveland and was ALCS champ?
I definitely like the fit for Santander with the Jays. Many reasons it makes sense.
I hope we aren’t the ones that end up with Santander. He seems like the biggest landmine on the market. But desperation might lead to jumping on some landmines.
30 years old – 105 home runs and nearly 300 RBI over the last 3 years – low OBP good power – he is what he is – not sure I get the landmine concern.
He averages 2-3 WAR. If he’s paid appropriately for that, he works on any team.
i started a drinking game with my friends where you have to take a shot every time the word “interested” appears in an mlbtr post but i had to stop when all of them died of alcohol poisoning
IMO, the Yankees should sign Santander, Bregman, Burnes, and Fried instead of signing Soto for over 650-700. Sometimes, quantity is better than one quality player. However, the Yankees would never consider it
They love announcing they’re talking to or previously tried to sign tons of players.
Santander strikes me as the type of player who is more likely to collapse from one year to the next. I doubt he ever repeats his 2024, but he should have a couple productive years ahead. I wouldn’t want my team to offer more than three years, but he’ll get more.
Burnes to the jays now that’s funny
Everybody knows the Blue Jays go visit every agent, every year to express their interest in every player. Unfortunately, with no Vlad extension, they’re wasting precious time because no big free agent is signing on with a franchise with no direction
I wonder what guerrero thinks about this phantom two budget in event of soto. Does it motivate him to sign?
All talk no action typical Shapiro Atkins. Fans want to see guerrero signed plus! Or… please can Atkins. Get the job done
In reality
More glove first to come!