{"id":565669,"date":"2026-02-11T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/565669\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T06:00:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:00:33","slug":"anthony-santander-out-5-6-months-as-blue-jays-face-deluge-of-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/565669\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Santander out 5-6 months as Blue Jays face deluge of injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The outset of Spring Training is not treating the defending American League champions kindly. <\/p>\n<p>Blue Jays outfielder Anthony Santander is expected to undergo surgery for the labrum in his left shoulder and miss the next five to six months, manager John Schneider <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bnicholsonsmith\/status\/2021347016371208300?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">told reporters<\/a> in Dunedin, Fla., on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>On top of that, Schneider said right-handed pitcher Bowden Francis will miss the entire season with ulnar collateral ligament surgery. <\/p>\n<p>Fellow righty Shane Bieber is expected to start the regular season on the injured list with right forearm fatigue.<\/p>\n<p>Santander, 31, was one of the big prizes of the Blue Jays\u2019 2025 offseason when he <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/23\/sports\/blue-jays-anthony-santander-splash-includes-a-lot-of-deferred-money\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inked a five-year, $92.5 million contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But thanks to a left shoulder issue, Santander was limited to just 54 games and hit .175\/.271\/.294 with just six home runs.<\/p>\n<p>He contributed three hits over five playoff games but was removed from the Blue Jays\u2019 roster during the American League Championship Series when a back injury forced him off the field.<\/p>\n<p>A 2024 All-Star with the Orioles, Santander, at his best, is one of the better switch-hitters in the game. During his final three-year stretch (2022-24) with Baltimore, he clubbed 105 home runs with a 124 OPS+ and averaged over 153 games per season.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.42817294;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38451836\" width=\"843\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/100725Yankees148CW.jpg\" alt=\"Anthony Santander hitting a baseball during the 2025 ALDS.\" class=\"wp-image-38451836\"  \/>Anthony Santander in action during the 2025 ALDS against the Yankees. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n<p>As for the pitching side, Francis emerged on the scene in 2024 with a 3.30 ERA over 103 2\/3 innings as both a starter and reliever. <\/p>\n<p>Notably, he had two starts in which he lost no-hitters in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n<p>But 2025 proved not to bear the same success, as he held a 6.05 ERA before landing on the IL in June with a shoulder impingement. He did not pitch in the World Series run.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.57296467;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38451838\" width=\"928\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NYP10825YANKEES30JS.jpg\" alt=\"Anthony Santander\" class=\"wp-image-38451838\"  \/>Anthony Santander is expected to miss five to six months after surgery. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n<p>Bieber, who <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/05\/sports\/shane-bieber-opts-in-to-stay-with-blue-jays-after-run-to-world-series\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">opted into his $16 million deal for 2026<\/a>, made 11 starts for Toronto down the stretch after a trade from the Guardians, including four during the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outset of Spring Training is not treating the defending American League champions kindly. Blue Jays outfielder Anthony&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[8125,5,4,1271,185,151,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-565669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-al-east","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-shane-bieber","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-spring-training","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116050476123500479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}