DUNEDIN, Fla. — Two immediate takeaways from the Toronto Blue Jays’ acquisition of Jesus Sanchez from the Houston Astros for fellow outfielder Joey Loperfido: One, they’re very comfortable creating depth by building surplus into the big-league roster; And two, the Competitive Balance Tax thresholds are of minimal hindrance to their ambitions.
Those two factors, along with several others, made Friday morning’s trade an intriguing one, a transaction sure to shift initial plans of how the pieces already in place fit together.
GM Ross Akins, speaking shortly after the deal was announced, described the 28-year-old Sanchez, who is earning $6.8 million this year and won’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2027 season, “as one of our better options against right-handed pitching on a very regular basis,” whose “power is real.”
With Daulton Varsho essentially locked into centre, that puts Sanchez, primarily a right-fielder over parts of six seasons in the majors, into one of the corners, where fellow left-handed hitters Addison Barger and Nathan Lukes and the right-handed Myles Straw and Davis Schneider were lined up for the bulk of playing time.
The Blue Jays had what appeared to be a logjam in the outfield cleared when Anthony Santander underwent shoulder surgery that will sideline him for five-to-six months. But adding Sanchez to the mix rebuilds the surplus, giving manager John Schneider more options to mix and match and the club protection in the event of injury or underperformance.
“It’s going to just make us better,” said Atkins. “I could see outfields where we have three left-handed hitting outfielders and Addison’s playing in the infield, so that versatility just adds options for us and makes our 26-man extremely strong.”
Added Schneider: “You need more than just 13 and 13 over the course of the year. Good teams have depth on their major-league roster and you have good depth behind that ready to fill in when called upon. We learned last year — I learned last year — that it’s pretty beneficial to use everyone in situations that their skills are good at. Having that option, having that versatility, I think, is really good for us, and guys have been there and done that a little bit more. With where we are in a competitive window, not that we’re going to try to leave the competitive window, but I think it works out well for how we’re built.”
The cost of doing that is Loperfido, one of the pieces acquired in the Yusei Kikuchi 2024 deadline deal with Houston, and the money owed to Sanchez, which pushes the Blue Jays right to, or over, the final $304-million luxury-tax line, depending on how the figures land. The willingness to go there for Sanchez underlines how, at this point, even a 60-per-cent overage charge won’t prevent further additions.
Essentially, they took advantage of the Astros’ desire to move money and swapped out Loperfido’s potential and flexibility into two years of the present version of what he might become.
“Jesus, having been in the major leagues now for a significant portion of time over the last four years,” said Atkins, “and having had a great deal of success and the power complement to us that has already played out, is attractive to us with where we are as a team.”
Loperfido said he didn’t see this deal coming the way he did the one that landed him in Toronto. He reflected on the personal growth he experienced during his year and a half in the Blue Jays system after not putting his “best foot forward in that second half of ‘24, making some adjustments, having some tough conversations and then seeing those adjustments play out down the stretch last year.”
“I feel like I can leave knowing I’m a better player now than I was when I got here,” he continued. “I’m so grateful to have gotten to play with this group, to play in Toronto for the fans, for the whole country. And that post-season run I’ll have my whole life. I’ll always be grateful for that.”
Going back to the Astros, “is crazy,” he said. “I had a missed call from Ross and a text that said, ‘Hey, give me a call when you get a chance,’ and I said to my girlfriend, ‘We might be going somewhere else.’ Houston was definitely not what I was expecting him to say. But it’s a familiar place. I still know a ton of guys in that clubhouse, keep in touch with them pretty regularly. And staff-wise, it’s a lot of the guys that were there when I was playing there in ’24. If I had to go anywhere, it’s going to be awesome to go back there.”
Beyond the big-league roster, the Blue Jays still have depth at the upper levels of the farm system in Jonatan Clase, R.J. Schreck and Yohendrick Pinango, while Victor Arias, who finished last year at double-A, has people excited within the organization.
All that gives the Blue Jays the flexibility to remain active in the trade market and Atkins said, “We always want to stay open to that.”
“We’re open to thinking about different ways of structuring the 40-man, the 26-man and beyond,” he added. “But feel very good about the starting point right now and excited about the add today.”
LINEUP CONSTRUCTION: Bo Bichette’s departure leaves the Blue Jays without a cleanup hitter, although they had a dry run of life without him for most of September and through the first two rounds of the post-season, while the star infielder was recovering from his knee injury.
Addison Barger against righties and Alejandro Kirk did most of the heavy lifting there in his absence, and they were prime among the options John Schneider mentioned Friday, which also included Jesus Sanchez.
“We’re trying to really get him in really good spots against some right-handed pitchers for sure,” said Schneider. “Guys like Barge, Kirk, Varsh, (Kazuma) Okamoto, Sanchez, it’ll depend on the matchup. Bo is really good at driving in runs; that was his big thing. It’s not like he was a 30-40 home run type of cleanup hitter, but a guy that can hit and drive in runs. But we have guys we think are good in those spots and it just depends on who we’re facing, really.”
George Springer will open the season back in the cleanup spot with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. likely in the three-hole, even if Schneider joked about seeing “if I can talk Vlad into the two-hole again, but maybe not.”
Beyond that, flexibility.
“I like to bucket it and going back to last year, bucketing it into top three, middle three, bottom three, and how does that work turning it around, too,” said Schneider. “So it could change. Ideally, yeah, you want it to be pretty consistent, but I think it could be a little bit of a fluid thing there.”
SHORT HOPS: Bowden Francis was met with hugs from teammates Friday morning when he rejoined the Blue Jays two days after undergoing the hybrid Tommy John surgery, featuring a full ligament reconstruction with an internal brace. The 29-year-old will miss the season recovering and was understandably “bummed” after “probably the favourite off-season I’ve had.”
He was about 10-12 pitches into his fifth or sixth bullpen of the spring two weeks ago when “I threw a slider and it just pulled really hard,” he said, right arm in a brace. “I knew something was off. I was hoping it was muscular.” It wasn’t, as initial MRIs showed a tear, and Tuesday, when he visited with specialist Dr. Keith Meister, the damage “was worse than he thought,” the ligament likely just holding on until that fateful slider “peeled (it) off the bone.” Francis plans to spend most of the season rehabbing in Dunedin with sporadic visits to Toronto to visit the team. “I’ll be in good spirits” through the rehab process, he said, “I’ll be positive.”
Alejandro Kirk caught a career-best 965.1 innings last season, smashing his previous high of 775 in 2023, and then added another 163 frames in the playoffs. “It was a long season,” he said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “But the best thing I did was to come down here in December to prepare for spring. We had a good plan, went back to Tijuana, I did everything there to prepare myself for now, and I’m feeling great, physically.”
His grind in 2026 starts early, too, as he’ll suit up for Mexico at the World Baseball Classic. He said how much he catches with the national team is still being sorted.
