What do the Blue Jays get for the $92.5 million US they’ve paid to lock up slugger Anthony Santander for the next five seasons?
Is it a slugger coming off a career-high 44 home run season who instantly and dynamically will alter a struggling Jays offence?
Or will it be a proven hitter with some flaws who is destined to regress towards the back end of the multi-year deal?
Perhaps a bit of both, but it was a savvy gamble the Jays front office desperately needed to make and looms as a big step in a progressive off-season now that they have that big, booming 44 home run bat to partner with Vlad Guerrero Jr.
Just how long those two are in the same order remains the pressing issue facing the Jays as Guerrero’s self-imposed deadline to get an extension done is now less than a month away. But there won’t be a person with the Jays who isn’t excited about the power possibilities of those two bats in the same lineup, including Santander.
“I don’t know if I’m going to hit in front or behind him, but I’m sure it’s going to be a powerful duo,” Santander said on Tuesday in an introductory press conference from the team’s player development complex in Florida that was beamed north via video. “I know we’re going to do a lot of damage.”
The potential for that damage is the clear appeal for landing Santander, the former Baltimore Orioles slugger, who Jays general manager Ross Atkins said was a top target for the Jays from the beginning of free agency. In fact, the GM claimed that “we had a jersey floating around our office with your name on it all off-season,” as he officially introduced Santander to an assembled crowd of staff at the Dunedin facility.
“Anthony is about as good of a fit as we can find,” Atkins said. “Doing it from both sides of the plate (as a switch hitter), putting the ball in the seats (regularly), his ability to do damage on a nightly basis is exactly what we were looking for and a great addition to the lineup.”
It will be an especially welcome addition should Atkins be able to add another bat, especially one for the lower half of the order, but even as the talk ticks towards spring training, plenty of options remain.
For his part, Santander expressed enthusiasm about the idea of coming to Toronto. As every newly signed dude likes to maintain, the 30-year-old said the Jays were at the top of his list from the start. Whispering in his ear the benefits of a shift north was fellow Venezuelan and former Jay Victor Martinez as well as pitcher Alex Manoah (who he trains with in Miami) and Guerrero (who he feels is a kindred spirit with his prowess at the plate.)
Where he fits in the lineup will be a focus for manager John Schneider when spring training gets under way in less than a month, but the one-two punch of Guerrero and Santander will be a certainty. Defensively, Santander vowed that he will go where he’s told — whether that means either corner outfield spot, first base or designated hitter.
“I’m open to play anywhere because I just want to win,” Santander said. “I’m really flexible with that. All I want is to get ready to win games. I’m gonna play where the skipper’s going to need me.”
Santander is coming off a season with career highs in home runs and walks, tempered some with the caveat that he’s the type of hitter also prone to the loud fly ball out. But it’s a price — expensive as it is — that the Jays will gladly and wisely pay if it snaps the offence out of its doldrums.
With allowances for playing to the crowd he was speaking to on Tuesday, Santander said the Rogers Centre is his favourite stadium to play in. From a hitter’s standpoint, he likes what he sees. Literally.
“It’s a good park,” Santander said. “You can see the ball really good, especially with the renovation stuff. The environment is great, the fans.”
Zooming out to the bigger picture of the team itself, Atkins isn’t about to admit he needs to do more.
“We feel were in a really strong position but we’ll continue to work to see if there are ways to improve our roster,” Atkins said. “We feel like we’ve got a lot of work done this off-season and of course we will continue to try to add to this team if there’s a way to do it.
“Hopefully we’ll have avenues to improve our team. We’re working around the clock. We won’t stop.”
Whether burning that midnight oil and never-ending quest to take a last-place club back to the playoffs and beyond remains to be seen. Atkins had no interest in talking about other pursuits — including the lingering Guerrero business — on Santander’s big slip-on-the-jersey day and would never tip his hand anyway.
There remains a strong possibility that it will be the GM’s best move off the off-season, a power bat with potential. But Atkins surely knows it can’t be his last one, either.