Phillies may have just given the Blue Jays their Anthony Santander replacement

The Toronto Blue Jays were dealt a huge blow even before Spring Training had even started when it was announced that outfielder Anthony Santander will undergo surgery to repair his left shoulder labrum and will miss the next five to six months, putting the Blue Jays offense in a huge bind heading into the 2026 season.

However, the Philadelphia Phillies may have done the Blue Jays a huge favour by potentially giving them their ideal replacement for Santander right away. On Thursday, the Phillies officially released 13-year MLB veteran Nick Castellanos with one year remaining in his contract as he now enters free agency to look for a new home. According to MLB insider Jon Heyman, the Blue Jays are among five teams that would be potential fits for the 33-year-old outfielder.

Phillies may have just given the Blue Jays their Anthony Santander replacement

After all, Castellanos is a former two-time All-Star that had eclipsed 20 home runs six times in his career, along with topping 100 RBIs in another three occasions. Although the 33-year-old veteran had a down year with the Phillies last season, posting a .250 batting average, .694 OPS, along with 72 runs scored, 17 home runs and 72 RBIs in 147 games played, part of that could have been attributed to the fact that he wasn’t getting consistent playing time down the stretch. In addition, a potential incident in the clubhouse with Phillies manager Rob Thomson could have also inadvertently contributed to Castellanos’ decline in level of play.

Despite all of that, the 33-year-old veteran has shown to be productive for much of his MLB career by compiling a .272 average and .785 OPS, while averaging 79 runs scored, 24 home runs and 88 RBIs per season over a full 162-game schedule pace for his career overall. More importantly, the Blue Jays would love the fact that Castellanos has previously shown to have success hitting in the American League during his time with the Detroit Tigers. In addition, he is a big-time lefties masher, with a career .294 average and .853 OPS when facing southpaws.

However, there is one main caveat to Castellanos’ game, which is his less-than-stellar defense. Last season with the Phillies, he registered a dismal -11 Defensive Runs Saved and -12 Outs Above Average, although he did manage to sport a perfect 1.000% fielding percentage at the same time.

But with Blue Jays manager John Schneider having planned to give Santander some primary DH time in addition to time in the field this season prior to his injury, he could use the exact same plan for Castellanos to minimize the detrimental effect that he could have playing in the outfield too much.

Nevertheless, Castellanos would instantly lengthen their entire lineup with Santander on the sidelines, giving them another potent bat to protect key players in the batting order. In addition, with Toronto having seen the bulk of their players miss some time due to injuries in recent years, they wouldn’t need to worry too much about the former Phillies slugger. That is because has shown to be quite durable in recent years, having appeared in at least 136 games during his past five seasons, including playing all 162 games during the 2024 MLB campaign.

The Blue Jays should finish the offseason by making one more addition to their lineup with Castellanos to help offset the loss of Santander.