TORONTO -- Finally, Anthony Santander’s name is on a lineup card.
After three-and-a-half months on the IL, Santander is scheduled to begin his rehab assignment with Triple-A Buffalo on Thursday. It’s often felt like this day wouldn’t come in 2025, and it was even delayed a few extra days this week by some back tightness, but once again, Santander has a shot to be part of this postseason run.
There are no guarantees yet, but the Blue Jays are going to try. Santander dislocated his left shoulder back in May and dealt with nagging inflammation in his labrum, so he’s still more comfortable from his left side than the right as a switch-hitter. That’s one of the biggest hurdles he’ll need to clear with the Bisons.
“We’re kind of running out of time, so we’ll see how he feels,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “The right-handed swing is good enough for games, and that will probably continue to get better as he goes, so here we go.”
How much of Santander do the Blue Jays need, then? Would it be enough if he were only swinging from the left side?
“It depends on how he’s hitting left-handed, to be honest with you,” Schneider said. “It’s tough to start him against a righty and make a move in the fifth inning if he can’t hit right-handed. Ideally, he’s good from both. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. We’ll see how the games go, and we’ll see how the left-handed swings go. If that’s something we think is going to be good for us, then maybe.”
Santander will DH early, but the Blue Jays want to see him in left field and right field, too. George Springer has been thriving as the Blue Jays’ primary DH all season long, especially in the second half, and while Springer could easily slide out to a corner outfield spot for the postseason, Toronto still wants Santander to look capable with the glove.
You could also see the Blue Jays bring Santander off the bench once or twice in Triple-A to simulate a pinch-hit scenario.
Santander will be force-fed on this rehab assignment, too. As Schneider said, the Blue Jays are racing the clock, and the Bisons have just 10 games left before their schedule ends on Sept. 21. Sure, Santander could face some live pitching off to the side to continue this “rehab” as a hitter, but Sept. 21 feels like a hard deadline at this point.
Through 50 games to open the season, often playing at less than 100%, Santander hit just .179 with six home runs and a .577 OPS. The reputation that landed him a five-year, $92.5 million deal with the Blue Jays this offseason still matters, but he’ll need to show the club some real signs here in the coming days.
“Kind of, yeah, and he knows that,” Schneider said. “It’s tough, because you don’t want to ignore what we’re doing here, and what guys are doing here. You want to be fair to him, too. You don’t want to just put him into a scenario where he doesn’t have the best chance to be good. It’s not [about] the hits, it’s about how he’s swinging, how hard he’s hitting the ball, how he’s running, all of that kind of stuff. It’s not like he needs to hit .400 to come back up, but I think we need to see Tony at his best from an offensive standpoint pretty consistently.”
If Santander can shock everyone and re-emerge as the hitter he was for the Orioles a year ago, that’s just one more jolt of life for one of the best teams in the American League. There are no guarantees, though, just an openness to trying, and finally, Santander is back in a lineup with a shot at making this happen.