<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Toronto Blue Jays\u00a0and outfielder\u00a0Anthony Santander\u00a0are in agreement on a five-year contract worth $92.5 million, giving the team one of the best hitters available this offseason after failed attempts to land a marquee free agent in recent years.<\/p>\n
The deal, announced by his agents at the Beverly Hills Sports Council and pending a physical, includes an opt-out clause and an escalated team option provision for 2030 that can make the deal worth $110 million over six years.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays, who also announced they had landed Santander, designated left-hander\u00a0Brandon Eisert\u00a0for assignment in order to add the outfielder to the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n
A Rule 5 selection after the 2016 season, Santander ascended to a starting role during the\u00a0Baltimore Orioles’ lean, rebuilding years before becoming a key component for the franchise’s playoff teams the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Santander, 30, recorded a career year at the right time in 2024, making his first American League All-Star team and posting a .506 slugging percentage with 44 home runs, 102 RBIs and 25 doubles in 155 games before reaching free agency this winter.<\/p>\n
The home runs ranked third in the majors last season behind only\u00a0Aaron Judge\u00a0and\u00a0Shohei Ohtani. They were also the fifth most for a switch-hitter in a single season and the most for a switch-hitter since Lance Berkman hit 45 in 2006.<\/p>\n
Santander’s shortcomings — he has a .307 career on-base percentage and isn’t a strong defender — did not prevent him from landing a multiyear contract with an organization that has been thirsting to add impact players.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays had been considered finalists to sign Ohtani,\u00a0Juan Soto,\u00a0Corbin Burnes\u00a0and\u00a0Roki Sasaki\u00a0over the past two offseasons, only to fall short each time. In Santander, Toronto adds a star a tier below those four players, but one who will bolster a lineup centered on\u00a0Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is slated for free agency next winter.<\/p>\n
Santander’s offense also better supplements one of the best starting rotations in baseball, as the organization looks to reverse its last-place finish in a loaded American League East.<\/p>\n
Because Santander received and rejected a qualifying offer from the Orioles, the Blue Jays will lose their second-highest draft pick in 2025 and $500,000 in international bonus pool room for signing him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The\u00a0Toronto Blue Jays\u00a0and outfielder\u00a0Anthony Santander\u00a0are in agreement on a five-year contract worth $92.5 million, giving the team one of the best hitters available this offseason after failed attempts to land a marquee free agent in recent years. The deal, announced by his agents at the Beverly Hills Sports Council and pending a physical, includes an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-360x180":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37-201x180.jpeg",201,180,true],"jnews-750x375":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-1140x570":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-120x86":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37-120x86.jpeg",120,86,true],"jnews-350x250":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",200,250,false],"jnews-750x536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-1140x815":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-360x504":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-75x75":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37-75x75.jpeg",75,75,true],"jnews-350x350":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-featured-750":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false],"jnews-featured-1140":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg",201,251,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Newssoccer","author_link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Blog<\/a>","tag_info":"Blog","comment_count":"0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/images-37.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8078,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8076\/revisions\/8078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}