The Blue Jays just lost a bunch of money

This is due to the fact that the Blue Jays signed Santander after he rejected a qualifying offer from his old team the Baltimore Orioles. Any team that signs a player who rejected a qualifying offer from their previous employer automatically loses 500K from their bonus pool.

Two other teams this affected were the San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox, who signed Nick Pivetta and Alex Bregman respectively.

It could have been worse for the Blue Jays, They could have lost at least a million if they had gone over the competitive balance tax threshold, which happened to several teams.

While $500K doesn't seem that big of a deal in an era of $500M contracts, given that many IFA's have signed with the Blue Jays for between 10-50K, it does effect their ability to stockpile young prospects, as was the case this year.

At least the Blue Jays aren't losing a compensatory draft pick, which has happened in years' past. Teams that signed a free agent who had rejected a qualifying offer would lose a sandwich pick to the previous team.

It's also possible that the Blue Jays will acquire the pool money right back via a trade, much like the one they made with the Guardians in an effort to land Roki Sasaki.

Santander, who is a notorious slow starter, has had mixed results in his first month as a Blue Jay.