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Toronto Blue Jays Not Seen as Favorite in Race For Anthony Santander

Are the Jays going to fall up short again in pursuit of another free agent?

Brady Farkas

Baltimore Orioles right fielder Anthony Santander (25) hits the wall after catching a ball during the eighth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in 2024.
Baltimore Orioles right fielder Anthony Santander (25) hits the wall after catching a ball during the eighth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in 2024. / David Dermer-Imagn Images
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According to Toronto Blue Jays Insider Shi Davidi, the Toronto Blue Jays are not the favorite for former Baltimore Orioles slugger in free agency.

He wrote the following for Sportsnet on Wednesday:

To wit, they’re staying in the game on Anthony Santander, although they’re probably not the favourite to land the switch-hitting outfielder right now.

This is a familiar refrain for the Blue Jays and their fans, as Toronto has consistently fallen short in pursuit of top talent recently. They missed out on Shohei Ohtani last offseason and then also missed on Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Teoscar Hernandez this offseason. They had made offers to both Soto and Burnes and were said to want a reunion with Hernandez.

If they miss out on Santander, they'll have to keep pursuing Bregman or risk coming up short on all of their offseason targets.

The 30-year-old Santander is native of Venezuela and coming off an incredible year for Baltimore where he hit .235 with 44 homers and brought in 102. A lifetime .246 hitter, he helped Baltimore get to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons (2023 and 2024). They won 101 games back in the 2023 season and captured the American League East title.

Santander has hit 28 homers or more in each of the last three seasons and has brought in at least 89 runs in each of those years also.

The Jays are coming off a season in which they finished last in the American League East at 74-88.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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