Anthony Santander Is a Disappointment

[Mike LeSage]

A week ago, following the results of the US midterm elections, Anthony Santander shared a pair of videos to his personal Instagram account for his 85k+ followers. These videos were Islamophobic and taken down before they timed out, suggesting that someone in Santander’s camp got word to him to consider what an idiot he looked like. The videos were shared from a pair of right-wing accounts and were the kind of things you might expect your least favourite and most ignorant uncle to bring up at Thanksgiving dinner. For most of us, of course, our bigoted relatives don’t have much of a platform or play for the local major league sports team. 

First off, I can’t understand how stupid you would have to be to share anything controversial as an MLB player. I wouldn’t excuse it from a dumb, recently drafted rookie in the minors, but if I squint, I can see how an inexperienced child, without proper media training, might slip up on their social media. Santander is a 32-year-old man. He has presumably traveled the world, experienced different cultures and works in a city where almost one in 10 people are Muslim. He should have also taken part in *at a minimum* some level of “don’t be a f***ing idiot” training (I don’t know what MLB or the Blue Jays call their official seminar).

In MLB’s Annual Programming Calendar, they have something called a Player Transition Program for international players that are placed on a domestic roster for the first time. It covers things like “learning English and new customs, community building and development, mental wellness, prohibited substances, sports betting, healthy relationships, social media, financial responsibility and more.” (The emphasis is mine.) I don’t know if this program was available for Santander when he signed as an international free agent in 2011, but I do know that I can get to the current MLB Social Media Policy with two easy mouse clicks from that page, where point No. 7 in the Prohibited Conduct section is: 

7. Displaying or transmitting Content that is derogatory or insensitive to individuals based on race, color, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, age, disability, or religion, including, but not limited to, slurs, jokes, stereotypes or other inappropriate remarks.

There is no question that Santander’s posts were in violation of this policy. Again, I cannot fathom the lack of intelligence it would take to risk sharing or posting something on social media like that as a public figure. I am sure there are many athletes who hold views I would disagree with at best and find morally abhorrent at worst – maybe even some of my favourite players. That’s the unfortunate pact we have to make with them and ourselves at times. If the players keep their mouths shut, we can extend the benefit of the doubt that they’re decent human beings that happen to be great at a sport we love. Maybe that’s overly cynical of me, but in Santander’s case, he has removed all doubt. The policy concludes with this note on enforcement: "A Major League Player who violates this policy may be subject to discipline for just cause by either his Club or the Commissioner."

“MAY be subject to discipline” leaves a lot of gray area for cowardly clubs to shrug off any responsibility. In a statement provided by a club spokesperson, the Blue Jays said: "Baseball is for everyone, and the Blue Jays have created an inclusive experience where all fans feel welcome at our ballpark. Individual comments do not represent our organization's values and beliefs."

That reads to me as about the weakest possible response the club could have made. Maybe they are hoping that with this happening during the offseason, they can sweep it under the rug and it will be forgotten by the time next season rolls around. Again, that is a cowardly approach and one that you might expect from an organization that has never had to deal with this type of controversy before.

The Jays, of course, had a very similar controversy in recent memory. In fact, this same front office was in charge when Anthony Bass (I can’t believe we’re still talking about Bass in 2026) made a series of anti-LGBTQ posts on his Instagram account in 2023. That happened during the season, and the front office’s initial reaction was to hide Bass from media availability and then, a few days later, brought him out to issue a ‘sorry if anyone was offended’ non-apology. The Jays then doubled down on Bass and lined him up to catch the opening pitch of the upcoming Pride Night game. The whole Bass saga lasted two weeks and involved a series of bizarre and contradictory apologies and statements to the media before it finally met its inevitable conclusion. Prior to that Pride Night game arriving on the schedule, the Jays released Bass in what GM Ross Atkins called “a baseball decision.”

A baseball decision. In 2023, Bass put up a -0.1 bWAR with the Jays. That makes for a pretty easy case to release a guy. In 2026, Santander put up a 0.0 bWAR (because he didn’t play), which was an improvement on his -1.0 in 2025. Bass was on a one-year, team-optioned $3 million contract, while Santander has three years remaining on a $92.5 million guaranteed contract, so not exactly apples to apples. If you wanted to be extremely generous to Bass, you could point to his two previous seasons with the Jays where he posted positive bWAR numbers and argue that he had earned some level of trust from the organization. Santander doesn’t have that here. In fact, if the Jays came out and said they were using this incident to void Santander’s contract (there’s gotta be a general ‘public accountability’ clause in there, right?) and were willing to use the approximately $55 million remaining on it to fight any potential legal battle, they would be heralded as heroes. Instead, they have chosen silence and inaction.

I’m just so baffled by the whole thing. That Santander would share those posts in the first place is surprising, but can be explained by one idiot being an idiot. That the organization seems to have taken no lessons from previous cases and is once again fumbling a public-facing controversy is less excusable. In reporting by Ben Nicholson-Smith from the GM Meetings, Ross Atkins has expanded slightly on the initial club spokesperson's statement. Atkins claims to not have the words to describe his disappointment. He also confirmed that he had spoken with Santander and suggested that the player address his comments. So far, there has been no comment from Santander. When pressed by Sportsnet's Shi Davidi for specifics of what the organization plans for Santander, Atkins offered a weak "We’ll continue to work with him and hope that he can learn." It is worth noting that these comments from Atkins and reporting from Sportsnet took a full week to happen, and this was the best they came up with. The "hope that he can learn" might as well be 'thoughts and prayers' for all the good it is worth. 

View full article

[Terry Mesmer]

How I would have done it:

GM addressing a room full of cameras and reporters: "Anthony will now answer all of your questions...for the next hour."

AS: "Uh...."

Athletes would STFU after something like that.