TORONTO -- It’s a new era of baseball in Toronto. They’re not just winning big, but they’re spending big, too.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s 14-year, $500 million extension in 2025 completely changed our understanding of the Blue Jays moving forward, particularly following their high-profile pursuits of stars like Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto.
That’s carried into free agency, too, where the Blue Jays have established themselves as one of baseball’s biggest spenders. Finally matching the mentality that should always come with a market as big as Toronto, the Blue Jays are quickly rewriting their own record books when it comes to the largest free-agent deals in club history.
Here’s where that list stands entering the 2026 season:
1. Dylan Cease, RHP -- 7 years, $210 million
What a way to keep the momentum rolling after the Blue Jays fell just short in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series against the Dodgers.
The Blue Jays jumped the market completely, landing Cease with an early, aggressive market before the rest of baseball had even budged. Cease is worthy of the massive contract and immediately felt comfortable with the Blue Jays’ staff, who believed they could get even more out of one of the top strikeout starters in Major League Baseball.
This is about windows, too. The Blue Jays landed Cease a year before Kevin Gausman’s deal was set to expire and the rotation was in a period of transition, but in Cease, they have something to build around for the future. When you have the financial muscle to jump the market instead of waiting for it to come to you, these are the types of moves you can make.
2. George Springer, CF -- 6 years, $150 million
This contract paid for itself the moment Springer connected on that three-run home run in Game 7 of the ALCS against the Mariners, an image that will live forever in Toronto. It’s the exact type of moment that the Blue Jays dreamed of when they signed Springer to a deal that, at the time, represented a major step forward in spending for the club.
The stars aligned with this signing for the Blue Jays, who saw Springer as the “perfect fit” for their next step as club president and CEO Mark Shapiro put it. With a young team and most large contracts off the books, the financial flexibility was there, and Toronto didn’t hesitate to use it.
In 2018-19, the Blue Jays’ front office often talked about their long-term plan and, for fans who wanted to see a winning team on the field, it was understandably difficult to look that far down the road. The patience paid off, though, after the club went 32-28 in the shortened 2020 season and convinced the front office that now was the time for a big splash. It paid off for Springer, too, who cashed in following seven fantastic seasons with the Astros.
3. Kevin Gausman, RHP -- 5 years, $110 million
After Gausman reinvented himself and developed one of the best splitters in baseball, he was one of the top pitchers on the market heading into the 2022 season. At the time, the Blue Jays were stuck to choose between Gausman and Robbie Ray, who’d won a Cy Young Award in Toronto, but their belief in Gausman has been rewarded in every way.
Gausman has played the "ace" role well at times in Toronto, even picking up a third-place finish in AL Cy Young Award voting in 2023 with an AL-best 237 strikeouts. He and his family embraced Toronto (and Canada) in the way that the Blue Jays’ front office dreams of, too, and his value in the clubhouse and to this organization around the city cannot be overstated.
4. Anthony Santander, OF/DH -- 5 years, $92.5 million
Santander’s deal included some deferrals, which changes the structure here, but he was still the Blue Jays’ biggest free-agent splash headed into their 2025 season. Granted, injuries and poor performance kept Santander from contributing to the World Series run, so he’ll have the latter years of his deal to determine how it’s remembered in Toronto.
5. Russell Martin, C -- 5 years, $82 million
Martin’s deal acts as a blueprint for how many larger free-agent signings work. The latter years of his deal weren’t nearly as valuable as the front end, but that didn’t matter. When the Blue Jays signed Martin prior to the 2015 season, they needed one extra piece. Few players in baseball fit that bill better than Martin, and Toronto returned to the postseason for the first time in two-plus decades in 2015 and '16.
Over his four seasons there, Martin hit .225 with a .735 OPS. The Canadian was a clear fan favorite, with his No. 55 jersey still popular at Rogers Centre. Martin was dealt to the Dodgers prior to the 2019 season, the final year of his deal, and even though the Blue Jays didn’t reach the World Series they hoped for, the move made plenty of sense at the time and holds up with hindsight.