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Blue Jays' big-ticket free agent has gotten off to tough start in Toronto

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
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Apr 1 2025, 3:03 pm
Blue Jays' big-ticket free agent has gotten off to tough start in Toronto
Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images

When the Toronto Blue Jays hit the free agent market this past offseason, they were hoping to find a strong batter to help complement the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.

Though they weren’t able to land the biggest fish of the offseason in the eventual New York Mets signing of Juan Soto, Toronto seemed to land an okay consolation prize when they nabbed a 2024 All-Star from the Baltimore Orioles in Anthony Santander.

Fans salivated over the possibility of their new signing launching dinger after dinger over the Rogers Centre walls after he hit 44 homers a year ago.

Unfortunately for Santander, that hasn’t quite been the case. Fresh off signing a US$92.5-million, five-year contract that was Toronto’s biggest of the winter (and the fifth-biggest in team history), the 30-year-old Venezuelan outfielder is still waiting for his breakout performance in Toronto.

In five games in Toronto thus far, he’s struck out twice as many times (six) as he has hits, picking up just three singles to go along with one run scored and one run batted in. While Toronto has gone 3-2 in those five contests, Santander hasn’t really contributed offensively yet.

His .158 batting average is the lowest on the team of anyone with at least five at bats, as is his .431 on-base plus slugging (OPS). He’s never been much of a contact hitter, with a career high of a .261 batting average, but the power hasn’t come around yet in his first few games with the Blue Jays.

Of course, 19 at-bats are hardly enough to judge a five-year contract over. Anyone who’s watched enough baseball knows that early-season blips are often just that ā€” blips.

But for a player expected to be a key contributor over the next several seasons in Toronto, it’s clearly taken him a bit of time to get adjusted to his new surroundings.

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