If you can’t beat ‘em: Ross Atkins learned from the Dodgers with Anthony Santander deferrals

The American League East has been a busy division this winter with the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees all making major moves. The Toronto Blue Jays seemed to be the only team in the division not making moves, this changed with their signing of outfielder Anthony Santander. 

Right before his agreement with Toronto, it was reported that Santander was open to short term deals. For someone who is currently 30 years of age, this most certainly made him more marketable. However, Toronto gave Santander a five year contract worth $92 million which sounds like a high risk for a lot of money. The exact details of Santander’s contract makes the deal look like a reasonable one for the Blue Jays.

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Anthony Santander’s deferral 

The majority of the baseball world is currently annoyed by the Los Angeles Dodgers right now because of their ability to acquire high-end free agents because of deferred money in big contracts. While the Dodgers are a big market team that tends to have much higher funds than others, the concept of deferring money is not unavailable to the rest of the league. Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins has figured that out.

MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal reported the exact details of Santander’s contract with Toronto. $61.75 million of Santander’s $92.5 million contract has been deferred. Santander also has an opt out option after his third season with Toronto which likely made the offer more appealing to him. With the majority of this big contract not being on the 2025 payroll, this leaves Atkins with more room to make additional moves if he chooses to do so. 

Realistically, even with the capacity to make more signings, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the Blue Jays to be extremely aggressive this offseason. Building for the future should be their number one priority. With the tough division they are in and the remaining free-agent market, it is highly unlikely that the Jays will be competitive in 2025. However, building contracts like this one with respectable names like Anthony Santander could very well be the sign of a bright future north of the border.