Article: Anthony Santander Signs Five-Year Deal With Blue Jays

[Davy Andrews]

Anthony Santander is a Blue Jay for the next five years, at a cost of $92.5 million, some of it deferred.

Good news for Blue Jays fans: they will no longer be tormented by Anthony Santander. On Monday afternoon, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported that Santander is signing with Toronto. According to Ari Alexander, the deal is for five years, but Santander will have an opt-out after the third year. However, the Jays will have the power to void that opt-out by picking up a club option for 2030 (adding a sixth year to the deal). According to Ken Rosenthal, the deal is for $92.5 million, while Alexander has also reported that some of the money will be deferred.

Back in November, Ben Clemens of FanGraphs ranked Santander as his number 12 free agent and predicted that he would command five years and $100 million, while MLB Trade Rumors predicted four years and $80 million. Going by average annual value, the Blue Jays came in a bit below those $20-million predictions, but the opt-out makes the contract more valuable for Santander, as it gives him a chance to hit free agency again in four years if he thinks he can go out and get more money elsewhere. While the terms of the deferral aren't known yet, they will end up making the deal cheaper for the Blue Jays. In the end, it sounds like both sides made concessions to get the deal done.

This is a long-term deal for a player of Santander's age, and it's not without risk. While he has been extremely durable, playing in at least 152 games in each of the last three seasons, he is 30 years old, so this deal will take him into his age-34 season. However, Santander can slug, and that makes him a welcome addition to a Blue Jays team that ranked 26th in home runs (156) and 22nd in isolated slugging percentage (.148) in 2024. Santander immediately becomes a middle-of-the-lineup force who can hit both righties and lefties. The switch-hitting Santander is one of the game's premier home-run hitters, and he blasted 44 home runs in 2024. Over the past three seasons, he has hit 105 home runs. Fourteen of them have come against the Blue Jays, tied with Aaron Judge for the most in baseball.

Over the past four seasons, Santander has run a combined 119 wRC+. However, that excellent offensive contribution has only resulted in 9.4 fWAR because he gives up a lot of value with his defense. According to Statcast's Fielding Run Values, he has put up negative value in the outfield in each of the past four seasons. Santander will see time in both the outfield and at DH. He's already one of the game's slower players. After the Blue Jays spent the past three seasons with three legitimate center fielders in the outfield, their days of running out the best defensive outfield in baseball are almost certainly over, despite the addition of defensive maven Myles Straw on Friday.

Santander was a slow starter, debuting with the Orioles in 2017, putting up one great, short season in 2020, but not reaching the 100-game mark until 2021. To that point, he had a career wRC+ of 94, and had only been worth 1.3 fWAR over 286 career games, putting him well below replacement level. However, he figured things out in 2022. blasting 33 home runs in 152 games, and he hasn't looked back. The Blue Jays will count on Santander to stay healthy and powerful will into his mid-30s. Today, however, it's got to feel nice to finish first on a major free agent.

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[Orgfiller]

Damn Davy, you are really on top of things.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Five years? Okay, that part is a surprise.

[Davy Andrews]

36 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Damn Davy, you are really on top of things.

You're going to make me blush.