The Toronto Blue Jays got bad news on Tuesday as they look ahead to defending their AL pennant.
Right fielder Anthony Santander needs surgery on his left labrum and is expected to miss 5-6 months. The latter end of that timeline projects a return sometime in August, well past the All-Star break.
Manager John Schneider announced the news to reporters Tuesday. Santander will likely miss more than half the season on the heels of playing just 54 games in his first season in Toronto in 2025.
Santander, 31, made his first All-Star team in 2024 as a member of the rival Baltimore Orioles, sending him into the offseason as one of the better hitters available in free agency. He joined the Blue Jays that offseason on a five-year $92.5 million contract.
Various injuries including to his shoulder limited Santander to 54 regular-season games in 2025. He returned for the final week of the regular season and played five postseason games in the ALDS against the Yankees and the ALCS against the Mariners.
But the Blue Jays removed him from their ALCS roster before Game 4 with a back injury and he did not make Toronto’s World Series roster.
Schneider told reporters Tuesday that Santander was “feeling good after the season” and that the goal this offseason was to avoid surgery while resting and rehabbing in November in December.
But he experienced a setback when he returned to hitting in January, and the Blue Jays and Santander ultimately opted for surgery. He’ll have the procedure on Wednesday, more than three months after the conclusion of Toronto’s season in their Game 7 loss to the Dodgers in the World Series.
“Unfortunate with the timing, obviously, after the season he had too, for sure,” Schneider said. But just a setback after he started hitting and ramping up in January.”
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