{"id":569921,"date":"2026-02-13T09:53:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569921\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T09:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:53:24","slug":"toronto-blue-jays-may-have-one-last-chance-to-land-a-veteran-slugger-this-off-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569921\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays may have one last chance to land a veteran slugger this off-season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Blue Jays have improved in a lot of areas this offseason, but they&#8217;ve yet to add the big bat they were hoping for.<\/p>\n<p>The original plan was to sign Kyle Tucker, who had been linked to the Jays for months. That didn&#8217;t go as expected, however, as the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogto.com\/sports_play\/2026\/01\/kyle-tucker-preferred-toronto-blue-jays-over-dodgers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> 29-year-old instead inked a four-year deal with the LA Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After losing out on Tucker, the Blue Jays attempted to bring back shortstop Bo Bichette, only to see him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogto.com\/sports_play\/2026\/01\/bo-bichette-era-toronto-blue-jays-over\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sign with the New York Mets<\/a> the following day. It appeared that they were going to need an internal solution, though that plan has also taken a hit.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Santander, who was limited to just 54 games with the Jays in 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogto.com\/sports_play\/2026\/02\/toronto-blue-jays-three-bad-news-injury-updates\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently underwent shoulder surgery<\/a> and is expected to miss the vast majority of the 2026 season. There goes that potential\u00a0and much-needed bounce-back.<\/p>\n<p>Just when there appeared to be little hope, however, the Blue Jays may now have been presented with another potentially promising option.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday morning, the Philadelphia Phillies announced that they had released outfielder Nick Castellanos. The 33-year-old slugger was set to enter the final year of his five-year, $100 million contract.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a disappointing 2025 season, Castellanos has been a solid hitter throughout his MLB career. The two-time All-Star has hit north of 20 home runs six times in his career, while hitting triple-digit RBIs in three seasons.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nick Castellanos is being released by Phillies. Potential fits may include Padres, Jays, A\u2019s, Rangers, Reds. Uncertain where interest lies.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u2014 Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2022031710645628937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not only would Castellanos give the Jays some insurance in the outfield after Santander&#8217;s injury, but he would provide them with some offence to help support Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/p>\n<p>It may not be the addition Blue Jays fans had expected when the offseason first began, but bringing in Castellanos, who will certainly have a chip on his shoulder, could wind up being a great move for the organization.<\/p>\n<p>                Lead photo by <\/p>\n<p>Jayne Kamin-Oncea\/Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays have improved in a lot of areas this offseason, but they&#8217;ve yet to add&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,283,377,2554,15889,284,4,841,282,70,2553],"class_list":["post-569921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-baseball","tag-blue","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-castellanos","tag-jays","tag-mlb","tag-nick","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116062716278360055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569921","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=569921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}