Toronto Blue Jays GM comments on Santander's anti-Muslim posts

Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins met with the media in Las Vegas for the first time since his end-of-season availability, and he addressed the team's biggest offseason story so far — Anthony Santander.

Last week, Santander reshared several Islamophobic videos to his Instagram story following Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections.

The first clip was captioned "America voted for Sharia Last Night," in response to Michigan electing American-Egyptian politician Abdul El-Sayed to the U.S. Senate.

The second was a Christian podcaster making a series of Islamophobic remarks, claiming that "Islam is not peaceful" and that there is "no such thing as kind Muslims."

The Blue Jays provided a statement to Offside disavowing Santander's discriminatory actions, saying that his comments "do not represent the organization's values and beliefs."

When asked by Sportsnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith about the situation on Tuesday, Atkins said he was disappointed with Santander.

"There really aren't words to express my level of disappointment with him making those comments. I've expressed that to him," Atkins said.

"Anything exacerbating some level of anti-Islamic hate is just extremely concerning, extremely disappointing. I've also talked to Anthony about his lack of awareness."

As for the anti-Muslim videos posted by Anthony Santander, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said:

“There really aren't words to express my level of disappointment with him making those comments. I've expressed that to him.”

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) November 10, 2026

Santander signed a five-year, $92.5 million deal with the Blue Jays ahead of the 2025 season but has only played in 54 of 324 games since then.

The 32-year-old Venezuelan outfielder underwent shoulder surgery following last season, which has kept him off the field.

He'll enter the third year of his five-year deal in 2027.