The Blue Jays finalized their five-year free agent deal with Anthony Santander this week. The deal came with a $92.5M guarantee but was known to include heavy deferrals. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith first reported on Monday that MLB calculated the contract’s net present closer to $70M.
Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported more specifics on the contract structure this afternoon. The NPV landed just under $68.6M, which comes with an approximate $13.7M annual competitive balance tax hit. The deal includes $61.75M in deferred money. The specific layout is as follows:
- $13.5M signing bonus ($6.75M deferred)
- $13.5M salary in 2025 ($10M deferred)
- $16.5M salary in 2026 ($10M deferred)
- $16.5M salary in 2027 ($10M deferred)
- $14.75M salary in 2028 ($10M deferred)
- $12.75M salary in 2029 ($10M deferred)
- $15M club option for 2030; guaranteed a $5M buyout, which would be completely deferred
Santander has an opt-out after the ’27 season. He’s owed $60M over the first three years, so he’d be weighing whether to leave two years and $32.5M ($25M of which would be deferred) on the table. If he opts out, Toronto can override that by guaranteeing his 2030 salary at $17.5M. That would also escalate Santander’s salaries for the 2028 and ’29 seasons to $17.25M and $15.25M, respectively. The maximum value is $110M over six years — which would only be reached if Santander opts out and the Jays override it.
At the start of the offseason, the slugger was reportedly seeking five years and a nine-figure guarantee. He got the five years but came up well shy of $100M from an NPV perspective. MLBTR predicted Santander for four years and $80M at the beginning of the offseason. He beat that on raw money but did not get there in terms of net present value.
The Jays are into luxury tax territory. They’re taxed at a 20% rate on spending between $241M and $261M. They’re close to the $261M cutoff. Adding Santander likely comes with around a $3M tax hit for the upcoming season. Toronto would be taxed at a 32% clip for spending between $261M and $281M.