TORONTO -- The Blue Jays are leaving the porch light on for Anthony Santander.
The Blue Jays’ biggest offseason signing finally started his hitting progression recently in Toronto, the two words John Schneider has waited months to say. He’s still in the very early stages of this -- hitting off a tee -- but this finally represents the first steps in a situation that’s long felt like a standstill.
Santander hasn’t played since May 29, dealing with a lingering shoulder issue. The formal diagnosis is “left shoulder inflammation,” but we later learned there had been a shoulder subluxation involved and Schneider recently said that some of Santander’s issues had been with the labrum. Regardless of the fine details, though, Santander seems to have a shot -- even if it’s still a very small one -- to return this season.
Getting hypothetical, Schneider laid out what that would need to look like.
“Probably a few weeks of ramping up, then he’ll have to play in a good amount of games, I would think, to get some timing,” Schneider said. “You’re looking at the second week of September, maybe, something like that. It depends on how he builds up, really, and then how the games go.”
The issue, obviously, is that Santander struggled mightily before hitting the IL, often playing at less than 100% prior to it.
Santander hit just .179 with six home runs and a .577 OPS over 50 games. The Blue Jays had every reason to give him a five-year, $92.5 million contract this past offseason, fresh off belting 44 home runs with the Orioles, but they haven’t experienced the heights of Santander’s talent yet. The Blue Jays need to make sure that Santander’s shoulder is back to where it needs to be, which is complicated enough, but there’s a performance element to this, too.
“You want to be totally comfortable that he’s the normal version of himself,” Schneider said. “We definitely would like to have him back for the reason that we acquired him. I just need to make sure that that’s there before we do anything.”
Santander has always been a slow starter. His career OPS in March and April is just .645, but he always tends to heat up with the summer. Would starting again in September represent another version of “early?”
With any return, there’s also a consideration for the other dominos that would fall. George Springer, who’s expected to return from his concussion Saturday, has fully embraced the DH role and is thriving in it. While both he and Santander can play some level of right field and will likely split those duties in 2026, it’s another variable for Schneider and the Blue Jays’ front office to juggle here. If Santander is putting up a .900 OPS, that juggling quickly becomes worth it, but the Blue Jays will need to see it first.
The light’s still on, though, and the Blue Jays are giving Santander a shot at writing a different ending to his long, challenging first season in Toronto.