Longtime Baltimore Orioles slugger Anthony Santander is one of the best position players still left on the free-agent market. A return to the club he spent the last eight years with doesn't seem to be in the cards. However, the switch-hitter could remain in the American League East by signing a big-money deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Santander's final season with the Orioles in 2024 was huge before reaching the open market. He set career-high marks in home runs (44), RBI (102), runs scored (91) and OPS (.814) in 665 plate appearances. This performance resulted in an All-Star Game selection, his first Silver Slugger Award and finishing 14th in AL MVP Award voting.
Spotrac has projected a five-year, $89 million deal for the 30-year-old slugger, but Just Baseball's Ryan Finkelstein still thinks he'll earn more.
"Still only 30 years old, Santander can look for a deal that is at least five years long in free agency, but teams may be wary of committing that many years to him," Finkelstein wrote. "Somebody has to take the Blue Jays money, right? This was our original prediction that Anthony Santander was going to land with his former division rival and sign the Blue Jays, and it certainly seems like that could still be in the cards."
Toronto has whiffed on Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto each of the past two winters. While Santander isn't on the same level as those sluggers, he'd provide the Jays with some much-needed offense. Finkelstein is predicting a five-year, $110 million deal for Santander.
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