Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins scolded outfielder Anthony Santander for the recent controversial Instagram posts he made.
Santander recently shared several anti-Muslim posts on his social media, which drew the ire of the Blue Jays fanbase.
Santander ended up taking down the posts, but not before the damage was done.
The Blue Jays did issue a statement distancing themselves from Santander’s posts, but most fans feel like the club didn’t take enough of a stance against what the outfielder posted on his social media.
But now, the club’s GM has taken a much more hardened stance against what Santander shared.
Ross Atkins Reacts to Anthony Santander’s Controversial IG Posts
Speaking to reporters in Las Vegas, Atkins reacted to Santander’s controversial posts, expressing how disappointed he was to see one of the Blue Jays’ players share what he did on social media.
“There really aren’t words to express my level of disappointment,” Atkins said, per Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. “Anything exacerbating some level of hate, anti-Islamic, is just extremely concerning and extremely disappointing.”
“I also talked to Anthony about his lack of awareness, realizing that he has a very large microphone, what that meant. We’re working exceptionally hard internally to ensure, and we have been, that it’s a safe environment, that baseball is for everyone. It’s very important to us. It’s a part of our organizational values and his behaviour did not align with that,” Atkins said.
“We’ll continue to work with him and hope that he can learn,” Atkins said. “We’ll continue to talk to him and work with him on that and do our best to help him learn.”
What does that mean?
“We’ll continue to talk to him and work with him on that and do our best to help him learn.”
“I expressed my level of concern. I believe he felt it. I know he feels badly. But I don’t want to speak for him,” Atkins said.
“I told him I thought he needed to and that he should (speak publicly about his IG posts),” Atkins said.
Asked how Santander replied to that, Atkins said simply, “I told him I thought he needed to and that he should.”
Blue Jays Still Owe Anthony Santander a Ton of Money
While many Blue Jays fans would love to cut Santander and see the team wash their hands clean of the controversial outfielder, he is still owed a ton of money.
The Blue Jays signed Santander to a five-year, $92.5 million deal in January 2025 that contains a ton of deferred money. There are still three years left on that deal, and the first two have not gone well for the Blue Jays or for Santander, who has been often injured and, overall, has had a terrible performance for the team when healthy.
The Blue Jays are most likely stuck with Santander unless they either want to just eat the remainder of his deal and release him, or if they can find another team that wants to also trade a bad contract in a swap of unfortunate deals.
Most likely, though, the Blue Jays will have Santander back next season, which obviously is going to be controversial in itself, as many of the team’s fans are understandably upset with the things he posted on social media.
Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins Scolds Anthony Santander for IG Posts