The Blue Jays didn’t enter this offseason looking for “good enough.”
Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins | Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
They wanted a statement bat.
A lineup-changing presence.
The kind of star that ends the annual cycle of Toronto chasing—and coming up short.
For a moment, it felt possible.
Toronto spent big to upgrade the pitching staff, building the type of roster that looks ready to win now. But the bat never arrived.
Kazuma Okamoto came in as an intriguing addition with upside, yet the true dream scenario collapsed the way it always seems to: Kyle Tucker chose the Los Angeles Dodgers, leaving Toronto staring at the same uncomfortable truth they’ve been trying to outrun for years.
The outfield is still a question mark.
Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Anthony Santander | Brad Penner-Imagn Images
And now, the Blue Jays may be stuck with the answer they didn’t want.
Anthony Santander.
Once viewed as a movable piece—especially if Toronto landed Tucker—Santander is now positioned to play a major role in 2026, not because he earned it, but because the contract makes it almost impossible to escape.
With four years remaining on his five-year, $92.5 million deal, a trade looks unrealistic unless the Blue Jays are willing to swallow the money entirely.
And that’s not how teams admit mistakes.
Instead, they double down quietly.
Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Anthony Santander | Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Toronto’s outfield picture for 2026 has stability in only one spot: Daulton Varsho in center field. Beyond that, everything feels like a rotating experiment.
Left and right could be filled by some mix of Santander, Nathan Lukes, Myles Straw, Davis Schneider, and Addison Barger, while George Springer is expected to spend more time at DH.
In theory, it’s flexibility.
In reality, it’s uncertainty—made worse by the fact that Santander may be forced into the lineup simply because he’s too expensive to sit.
When the Blue Jays signed Santander, it felt like a familiar story: a strong player added after missing on bigger names. A “we still did something” move after years of watching top free agents choose somewhere else.
But his first year in Toronto didn’t just disappoint.
It collapsed.
Santander played only 54 games and was painfully ineffective when he was on the field. He posted a -1.0 bWAR and slashed .175/.271/.294—numbers that don’t just underperform a contract, they actively damage a lineup. It wasn’t a slump you could laugh off. It wasn’t a slow start you could explain away with patience.
It looked like a mistake that got expensive immediately.
The worst part is how sharply it contrasted with what came before. Santander arrived in Toronto after a career year with the Baltimore Orioles in 2025, a season that made his signing feel like a win—at least in the moment.
Then Toronto got the version nobody expected.
Now, at 31, Santander enters 2026 with two things hanging over him at the same time:
A bounce-back season he desperately needs…
and a contract that guarantees he’ll get chances whether he deserves them or not.
That’s where the tension sits for the Blue Jays.
If Santander rebounds, Toronto can pretend the first year was a fluke. An injury year. Bad luck. A weird transition. The narrative gets cleaned up, and suddenly the deal looks merely heavy—not catastrophic.
If he doesn’t?
Then the Blue Jays aren’t just dealing with a struggling player. They’re dealing with a roster constraint. A lineup spot that becomes harder to justify with every month. A contract that quietly limits everything else they want to do.
Because contracts like this don’t just cost money.
They cost options.
And Toronto is already living in a world where options matter. Missing on Tucker didn’t just hurt emotionally—it exposed how badly the Blue Jays needed an outfield solution they could believe in.
Without that superstar addition, the team’s plan becomes dependent on internal patchwork and a player whose first season was close to unplayable.
That’s not ideal.
That’s survival.
Toronto can’t trade Santander easily. Not now. Not with four years left. Not with last season’s numbers sitting on the surface like a warning label.
So the Blue Jays will do what teams always do when they can’t move a deal:
They’ll convince themselves the comeback is coming.
And maybe it is.
But as 2026 approaches, one question is already hovering over the roster like a quiet storm:
Is Anthony Santander about to rewrite the story…
or is Toronto about to spend another year trapped inside it?
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