LAS VEGAS — Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said “there really aren't words to express my level of disappointment” about Anthony Santander’s social media posts last week, adding "anything exacerbating some level of hate, anti-Islamic, is just extremely concerning and extremely disappointing."
Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon at the GM meetings, he added that he’s told the outfielder, who has three seasons remaining on his heavily deferred $92.5-million, five-year contract, that "he needed to and that he should" address his posts publicly.
Asked how receptive the 32-year-old was to that message, Atkins simply replied, "I told him I thought he needed to and that he should."
The comments were the first from a Blue Jays official since Santander, in the week of the U.S. midterm elections, shared a post with a thumbnail of Abdul El-Sayed, the senator-elect in Michigan, saying "America voted for Sharia last night" and another reading "Islam is not peaceful" via Instagram.
A statement from the team afterwards distanced the club from Santander but offered no next steps as hurt and anger over the posts grew. Atkins reiterated the core message of that initial comment when he said: “We're working exceptionally hard internally to ensure, and we have been, that it's a safe environment, that baseball is for everyone. It's very important to us. It's a part of our organizational values and his behaviour did not align with that.”
Given that, when asked for specifics on what was ahead for Santander, he replied, "we’ll continue to work with him and hope that he can learn."
The Blue Jays tried a similar approach in 2023 with Anthony Bass after the reliever reposted to Instagram a video citing a Bible verse to justify an anti-2SLGBTQ+ boycott of Target, but eventually ended up releasing the right-hander.
Bass had been on the bubble of the roster and likely to come off at some point anyway, making that decision straightforward. With Santander, the Blue Jays have been hopeful that he can regain his past home-run-hitting form after two seasons undone by shoulder injury.
He’s due $44 million, $30 million of which is deferred, over the next three years and has a club option for 2030 worth $15 million with a $5 million buyout, all of which is deferred. Santander also has an opt-out after the 2027 season.
Asked how the Blue Jays move forward with him on the baseball field next year, Atkins replied, “It truly is the same answer, and I don't mean it to skirt from your questions that are subtly different. But the same answer is that we're going to work with him to hope that he can learn from that in every way, with no guarantees of anything."
