The Toronto Blue Jays were determined not to leave the offseason empty-handed this season. Instead, they might have ended up in a worse spot.
Thankfully, the Blue Jays were able to take care of their biggest piece of offseason business, extending superstar first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a couple of weeks into the regular season. But their other business hasn’t paid very handsome early returns.
After missing on big names like Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes, the Blue Jays made former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander their signature offseason addition. Not only does his five-year, $92.5 million contract look like an overpay, but he’s been one of the least valuable sluggers in Major League Baseball.
On Sunday, the Blue Jays came under the microscope for the Santander deal. Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller listed the switch-hitter second on a top-10 list of the “worst contract busts” of the 2025 offseason.
“Thus far, (Santander’s) not hitting much of anything, saddled with the worst batting average of his career and not even on pace for 20 home runs. Santander had a .786 OPS over the previous six seasons, but is languishing slightly below .600 through two months,” Miller wrote.
“We were willing to give him a pass in April, as he historically has been a slow starter. We’re almost finished with May, though, and he has yet to show any signs of turning a corner. If anything, he’s seeing the ball worse, with multiple strikeouts in five of his last seven starts.”
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A year after hitting a career-best 44 home runs, Santander still came with question marks–most notably, a below-average .307 on-base percentage.
That figure has dipped to .280 in the new season, and with only six home runs a third of the way through the year, his entire offensive profile has collapsed.
Between the Santander deal, the $15.5 million contract for Max Scherzer, and taking on the final five years and $96.7 million of Andrés Giménez’s extension, Toronto’s offseason expenditures might get a pretty ugly letter grade a few years down the line.
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