Blue Jays’ Anthony Santander Out With Shoulder Injury

When it comes to spring training, this is hardly the manner that a club that has hopes of winning the World Series wants to begin. It has been brought to the attention of the Toronto Blue Jays that outfielder Anthony Santander will once again be a non-factor for a significant portion of the year 2026. Shoulder surgery is on the agenda for him, and he won’t be able to return to action until well into the second half of the ongoing season.

Surgery on the labrum in his left shoulder will prevent the slugger from playing for anywhere between five and six months.

During the previous year, Santander was also out for a period of four months due to difficulties with his left shoulder, which clearly were never resolved. Late in September, he made an attempt to return to the game, and then he participated in five games during the American League Division Series and the American League Championship Series, during which he hit.200 and had 15 at-bats.

The manager, John Schneider, stated that Santander did not benefit in any way from the time off that he received during the offseason.

The statement was made by Schneider, who was quoted by mlb.com. “He was resting and rehabbing in November and December, and then he kind of had a setback when he started ramping up with his hitting earlier in January,” Schneider said. “He got checked out and came over to the facility, and we did everything in our power to prevent this from happening. At this time, given everything that we went through the previous year and after having a conversation with Tony, this is the most effective approach to get him back to being at one hundred percent. Obviously, this is a really terrible turn of events.

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins does not believe that the team will be forced to take any significant action as a result of the recent development involving Santander.

What could the Blue Jays expect to happen as a result of the loss of Santander?

Despite the fact that Addison Barger will be playing right field on a fairly constant basis, that Kazuma Okamoto, a newbie, will be playing third base, and that George Springer will be getting the most of the at-bats in the designated hitter position, they will still have players like Nathan Lukes, Davis Schneider, and Myles Straw to share the left field position. Additionally, it may imply that Joey Loperfido and any other youngster who is prepared to take the next step will have more opportunities.

When viewed from the outside, the absence of Santander throughout the majority of the season sounds incomprehensible. To put that into perspective, he had hit 44 home runs as recently as the 2024 season, which was his final year in Baltimore. Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, on the other hand, are well aware of how completely insignificant the Venezuelan outfielder was during the 2025 season and the run to the World Series.

Before he went down with his shoulder injury, Santander had a batting average of just.179 through the end of May to go along with six home runs. During the few games that he participated in during the months of September and October, he was likewise inconsequential.

There is no doubt that Toronto will be able to make it through the season and qualify for the playoffs without their outfielder/DH who makes $92.5 million. However, were they anticipating a slightly higher return on their investment during this particular season? In a word, yes.