2026 Bounce back candidate: Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Anthony Santander

It's difficult to imagine a more frustrating start to Santander's Blue Jays career after signing a five-year, $92.5 million deal last winter.

The switch-hitting Santander has been a non-factor in the first season with the Blue Jays.

No player in this organization will be as eager as Santander to see a fresh start in a new season, and he will still have every opportunity to star in the middle of the Blue Jays' lineup.

Like Bo Bichette in 2024, Anthony Santander had the worst season of his career due to nagging injuries.

Last year at this time, I predicted Bo Bichette would bounce back as long as he remained healthy in 2025, which for the most part he did.

This year I predict the same for Anthony Santander. All season long injuries plagued the switch-hitting slugger and much like Bo, his track record speaks for itself.

Santander, 30, has established himself as one of the better power bats in the league in recent years.

Santander has four 20-homer seasons under his belt. He has connected on at least 28 longballs in each of the last three years, including a personal-high 44 in his last full season.

Santander hit .235/.308/.506 across 665 plate appearances in his walk year for the Orioles. Only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani had more home runs in that time.

His power-driven profile has proven to be fairly consistent for the slugger in recent years despite his generally low on-base numbers

His splits have been fairly close to neutral in his career. He has hit .252/.320/.467 for a 116 wRC+ against lefties, .243/.302/.470 for a 111 wRC+ against righties.

In his brief return late in the season, you could see Santander slowly starting to turn it back on, however he may have come back too early as a nagging back injury put him out for the remainder off the playoffs including the World Series.

I expect Santander to have better numbers all around in a healthy full season under the tutelage of hitting coach David Popkins.

His track record when healthy coupled with Popkins instruction, should give the Blue Jays confidence in his ability to perform as a middle-of-the-order bat entering his age-31 season in 2026.

When healthy and clicking again, Santander will make a difference for the Jays in 2026.