Mike Wilner: Anthony Santander was already one of the Blue Jays’ worst signings. Then he took to Instagram - Toronto Star

The oft-injured outfielder must apologize for sharing Islamophobic posts, and the Jays need to swallow the $57 million they still owe him.

Anthony Santander had contributed very little to the Blue Jays over two seasons before alienating part of the team’s fan base on Instagram this week.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Bluesky: @wilnerness

After two years of almost zero production from someone who was expected to be a huge part of the Blue Jays’ offence when he signed one of the richest free-agent contracts the team has handed out, there were legitimate questions as to whether Anthony Santander’s five-year, $92.5-million (U.S.) deal was the worst in their 50-season history.

Santander, a Venezuelan native, decided to weigh in on the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States in which voters swept the Democrats into power in both houses of Congress in numbers not seen in decades.

The 32-year-old amplified ugly, Islamophobic posts to his 84,000-plus followers on Instagram.

One showed a picture of Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed, who will become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history when he’s sworn in in January, with the words “Americans voted for Sharia last night!”

Another, originally posted by Nuhu Simon Jatau, who purports to be a Christian minister, called Islam a “violent” religion and said that there is no such thing as a kind Muslim, among other vile things.

The Jays reacted with an embarrassing public statement from an unnamed “spokesperson” in which they did not even mention Santander by name nor condemn his actions, saying only that “baseball is for everyone,” “individual comments do not represent our organization’s values and beliefs” and that the Jays have “created an inclusive experience where all fans feel welcome in our ballpark.”

The Jays still owe Santander more than $57 million through the end of the 2029 season, almost $40 million of which is deferred.

He has an opt-out clause after the 2027 season but, given the switch-hitter has managed to play in just 54 regular-season games the last two years, hitting .175 with six home runs, he won’t be walking away from that guaranteed money.

The club is motivated to try to recoup at least some of their investment, but what’s the path back for a player who most fans had forgotten was even with the team after he does something like this?

It should be said that Santander’s signing was first demanded and then praised in this corner after the Jays had spent two seasons focusing so much on pitching and defence that it felt as though Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins were trying to prove that you could win a game 0-0.

To be fair, I didn’t know the guy. Shapiro and Atkins did.

Santander was originally signed as a 16-year-old by the Cleveland organization in 2011. Shapiro was club president then, Atkins their director of player development. They had Santander for four seasons before Shapiro came to Toronto and brought Atkins with him after the 2015 season.

“Anthony is about as good a fit as we can find,” Atkins said at the news conference introducing Santander as a Jay in January 2025.

Last month, in discussing Santander’s potential return in 2027 after missing nearly two years, Atkins said the outfielder “still has all of the physical attributes, all of the mental attributes.”

I reached out to Atkins for comment on this situation, given his long personal relationship with Santander, and was referred back to the club-issued statement above.

With all that money owed, a divorce will not be as simple as it was with Anthony Bass, who was released in 2023 after sharing homophobic posts on his personal Instagram account.

Bass was a marginal relief pitcher having a terrible year and the Jays only had to swallow $2 million. Despite that, they bungled the situation from a public relations perspective, keeping the right-hander around for a week-and-a-half while quietly trying to trade him, then cutting him on the Friday that began Pride weekend at the ballpark.

The release came 24 hours after Atkins told the media that he felt Bass’s apology was authentic, followed immediately by Bass being dragged out in front of cameras and apologizing for creating a distraction but saying he stood by his personal beliefs.

Santander is going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that.

According to the most recent Statistics Canada data, almost 10 per cent of Toronto’s population is Muslim. Santander has offended all of them, and anyone who cares about them or about basic decency, and so have the Jays with their abominably weak response.

The Jays must come out with a strong statement saying what Santander did was unacceptable and offensive and that such behaviour will not be tolerated from anyone who is privileged enough to put on their uniform.

Santander must apologize — completely and unconditionally — explaining what he did was wrong and why he now knows it was wrong, and committing to meeting with Muslims and learning about them and their faith. Even that may not be enough.

If it’s not, the Jays should put the values they talk about into action and pay Santander the $57 million they owe him to go play for somebody else.

It’s not like they got anything for the first $35 million.

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Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Bluesky: @wilnerness