Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins on Anthony Santander’s anti-Muslim social media posts, Digi Mart USA News (Las Vegas): Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said “there really aren’t words to express my level of disappointment” about Anthony Santander’s social media posts from the previous week. He added that “anything exacerbating some level of hate, anti-Islamic, is just extremely concerning and extremely disappointing.”
Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon at the GM meetings, Atkins said he had told the outfielder that “he needed to and that he should” address his posts publicly. Santander is 32 and has three seasons remaining on his heavily deferred $92.5-million, five-year contract.
Asked how receptive Santander was to that message, Atkins replied, “I told him I thought he needed to and that he should.”
The comments were the first from a Blue Jays official since Santander shared posts during the week of the U.S. midterm elections.
One post included a thumbnail of Abdul El-Sayed, the senator-elect in Michigan, with the words “America voted for Sharia last night.” Another read “Islam is not peaceful.” The posts were shared via Instagram.
A statement from the team afterward distanced the club from Santander but offered no next steps as hurt and anger over the posts grew. Atkins repeated the core message of that statement: “We’re working exceptionally hard internally to ensure, and we have been, that it’s a safe environment, that baseball is for everyone.
It’s very important to us. It’s a part of our organizational values and his behaviour did not align with that.”
Asked for specifics on what lies ahead for Santander, Atkins said, “we’ll continue to work with him and hope that he can learn.” The Blue Jays took a similar approach in 2023 with reliever Anthony Bass, who reposted to Instagram a video citing a Bible verse to justify an anti-2SLGBTQ+ boycott of Target. The club eventually released the right-hander, though Bass had been on the bubble of the roster and was likely to come off at some point anyway.
With Santander, the Blue Jays have hoped he can regain his past home-run form after two seasons undone by shoulder injury. He is due $44 million over the next three years, $30 million of which is deferred.
He also has a club option for 2030 worth $15 million with a $5 million buyout, all deferred. Santander has an opt-out after the 2027 season.
Asked how the Blue Jays will move forward with him on the field next year, Atkins said, “It truly is the same answer… we’re going to work with him to hope that he can learn from that in every way, with no guarantees of anything.”
