SEATTLE \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays will be without Anthony Santander for the rest of the postseason. The switch-hitting slugger, Toronto\u2019s biggest offseason acquisition, will be removed from the Jays\u2019 postseason roster, sources tell The Athletic, pending MLB approval.<\/p>\n
Santander, who played just 54 regular-season games this year due to a shoulder injury, is dealing with back issues in October. All postseason roster moves must be approved by MLB, but if Santander comes off Toronto\u2019s roster, he will be ineligible to play in the World Series, should the Jays advance. Santander\u2019s 2025 season is done.<\/p>\n
In the first season of a five-year, $92.5 million deal, Santander hit .175 with six homers. He posted -1.0 WAR, per Baseball Reference, and was sidelined for much of the year. The 30-year-old returned in September, hoping to re-write the narrative of his opening season with clutch moments down the stretch and into October. In five playoff games, Santander notched three hits and drove in two runs. Pending the approval, his postseason will end with a .200 average and .450 OPS.<\/p>\n
Santander was a late scratch from Toronto\u2019s Game 2 lineup in the American League Championship Series due to a sore back. He returned to the batting order for Toronto\u2019s Game 3 win against the Seattle Mariners, but was removed mid-game for a defensive replacement. After waking up with stiffness and soreness on Thursday, manager John Schneider said, Santander was held out of the lineup once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeeling all sorts of October,\u201d Schneider said, \u201cAnd the season he has had.\u201d<\/p>\n
The roster move has not yet been made official, but outfielder Joey Loperfido appears a likely candidate to join Toronto\u2019s playoff roster. Shortstop Bo Bichette, still recovering from a knee sprain, will not be Santander\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n
Isiah Kiner-Falefa joined Toronto\u2019s Game 4 lineup in Santander\u2019s absence, with Addison Barger moving to right field. The Jays\u2019 offence managed through much of the season without its big free-agent signing, finishing the year fourth in runs scored. Tortonto must now push through October without him, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays will be without Anthony Santander for the rest of the postseason. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85,5161],"class_list":["post-218799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}