3 free agents Blue Jays can sign that’ll age better than the Juan Soto deal

Another year, another fruitless pursuit of a $700 million free agent from Ross Atkins and the Toronto Blue Jays. While the Juan Soto sweepstakes didn't feature anything as gut-wrenching as Shohei Ohtani's alleged flight to Toronto, the result is the same: A star playing somewhere else, and the Jays holding a giant bag of cash and begging someone to take it. And considering just how badly the team needs a big offseason to turn things around (and convince Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette to stick around for the long haul), you could very well argue that missing out on Soto hurts even more than the failed pursuit of Ohtani last winter.

But it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. Yes, Soto would've changed the entire trajectory of the Blue Jays franchise, a perfect fit on the field and a game-changing presence off of it. But it's also worth noting that paying him $800 million into his early 40s, as the New York Mets are set to do, is bananas — and may well not have been the best way to get Toronto back into contention in 2025. The Soto contract is sure to age poorly, and would have hamstrung the team's ability to fill holes in the infield and up and down the pitching staff.

A path forward remains for the Jays, as long as Atkins is aggressive enough to find it. Here are three places to start, with impact players who won't break the bank quite as badly.

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3. RHP Jeff Hoffman

Former closer Jordan Romano is off the Philadelphia Phillies, throwing into even starker relief just how badly the Jays need to find bullpen help this winter. It's going to take multiple moves to rebuild Toronto's relief corps, but the first of them should be, ironically enough, a former Phillie in Hoffman.

The 31-year-old righty has blossomed into one of the best relievers in the game over the past couple of seasons, pitching to a 2.28 ERA and a 12 K/9 across 118.2 innings. He'd immediately give Toronto the high-octane back-end option it desperately needs right now — or, potentially, a back of the rotation option, should the Jays opt to go the Clay Holmes route with a pitcher who was once upon a time a top-10 pick in the 2014 MLB Draft as a starter.

Hoffman could fill any number of needs for the Jays, and for a far more reasonable price.

2. OF Anthony Santander

Santander isn't in Soto's class as a hitter (for starters, he hasn't posted an OBP over .325 in his Major League career), but he does check three very important boxes: He's a corner outfielder, he hits left-handed and he hits for a ton of power, slugging 105 homers over the past three seasons.

The Jays are desperate for a lefty option in the middle of the lineup, and they're desperate for some more pop after ranking 26th in homers as a team in 2024. Santander isn't much as a defender, and won't help Toronto get younger and more athletic. But there simply aren't any five-tool players on the market right now, and Santander would give Guerrero Jr. some much-needed protection while lengthening the lineup and giving Toronto a look it doesn't currently have. Plus, his age and lack of defensive value mean the team could get him for something like four years and $80 million.

1. LHP Max Fried

The best thing the Jays can do with their Soto money is turn to the pitchers at the top of the free-agent market; Jose Berrios is the only starter the team has signed beyond 2026, and there isn't much depth beyond Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt. Adding another ace alongside Gausman would go a long way to keeping pace with the rest of the AL East, and while Corbin Burnes would also be a worthy target, there are a couple of reasons for the Jays to like Fried a little bit better.

Burnes was excellent with the Baltimore Orioles in 2024, but there were some small causes for concern under the hood, as his velocity, K rate and the effectiveness of his trademark cutter have all slipped a bit over the last couple of years. Fried looked like his typical self en route to a 3.25 ERA this past season, and more importantly for the Jays, he'd give them a left-handed look that this rotation very much needs. Fried won't come cheap, especially with the other teams who missed out on Soto all sniffing around. But after Soto's contract, landing him for $200-250 million sounds like an absolute steal.