Blue Jays Rebuke Anthony Santander After Islamophobic Instagram Posts

Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Anthony Santander shared two Islamophobic videos to his Instagram story after Tuesday’s US midterm elections, then deleted them. The Blue Jays responded on Thursday with a statement distancing the club from the posts, and no discipline has been announced. Santander has not played a game all year, and the controversy arrives while he is already the most expensive unavailable player on the roster.

What did Santander post?

Two videos, both shared to his Instagram story in the day after the midterms. The Comeback reports the first was reposted from an account called @theamericantruthproject, and claimed that all of the Muslims elected to office on Tuesday are radicals who want to impose Sharia law in Congress. It included an image of Abdul El-Sayed, elected to the US Senate in Michigan on Tuesday. The New York Post reports the post carried the caption “America voted for Sharia Last Night.” The second video featured a Christian minister describing Islam as “violent” and “driven by war,” The Comeback reports, and saying there is “no such thing as kind Muslims.” theScore reports both stories have since been removed, and TSN reports Santander later deleted the content. The posts were screenshotted and shared across social media before they disappeared, and fans pushed back on the 32-year-old Venezuelan outfielder while the screenshots circulated.

What did the Blue Jays say?

They drew a line between the player and the club, in wording the franchise has used before. The team said on Thursday: “Baseball is for everyone, and the Blue Jays have created an inclusive experience where all fans feel welcome at our ballpark. Individual comments do not represent our organization’s values and beliefs.” The New York Post reports the statement went to The Athletic, and The Comeback reports the same wording went to Offside. The statement is framed around the ballpark experience rather than the posts themselves, and it names no consequence for Santander. It is a rebuke, not a punishment, and the distinction is the story until the club says more. No apology or comment from Santander has been reported, and the club’s statement is the only on-the-record response from either side.

Has Santander been disciplined?

Not yet, and nothing has been announced. The Comeback reports the team did not announce any discipline for Santander when it issued its statement, and no official word on sanctions has come from either the Blue Jays or MLB. That leaves the question open, and the club’s own history says the answer may not come quickly. The last time a Blue Jay posted like this, the roster move came nearly two weeks after the post, not two days. The reporting so far is consistent on one point: the posts were deleted, the club has spoken, and everything else is still to be decided.

Why did the posts come down?

Because screenshots made deletion pointless, and the club moved anyway. The Comeback reports fans shared screenshots and called out Santander before the videos were removed, and the screenshots were already circulating widely by the time the posts came down. Santander deleted the content, and the Blue Jays issued their statement on Thursday. The sequence matters: the posts were public, the reaction was public, and the deletion came after both. The club did not wait to see whether the story would fade on its own.

What is Santander’s contract situation?

He is the club’s most expensive unavailable player. theScore reports Santander has three years and over $57 million remaining on his heavily deferred contract, a five-year, $92.5 million deal signed in January 2025. He has played in just 54 games since signing, theScore reports, and missed all of 2026 due to injuries. TSN reports he had labral surgery on his left shoulder in the winter, and he spent his first eight seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, where he was an All-Star in 2024. The contract math is why the story has a second layer: the Blue Jays cannot simply cut a player owed that much money without eating it. Toronto is not the only club managing a self-inflicted distraction this week, with new Mariners manager Jason Kanzler calling the Astros “the team that shall not be named” at his own introductory press conference, but Kanzler’s was a joke that landed. Santander’s was not.

Has a Blue Jay been in this spot before?

Yes, and the parallel is almost exact. In May 2023, reliever Anthony Bass shared an Instagram video calling for a boycott of companies that supported LGBTQ people, calling that support “evil” and “demonic.” Bass apologized the next day, Bleacher Report notes, and the club issued a statement saying individual player sentiments are not representative of the club’s beliefs, nearly identical wording to Thursday’s statement. MLB Trade Rumors reports the Blue Jays designated Bass for assignment on June 9, almost two weeks after the post, and released him on June 15. General manager Ross Atkins called it a “baseball decision” while conceding the distraction was something the club had to factor in. The precedent does not predict Santander’s outcome, since the money and the moment are different, but it shows how this club handles a player whose posts put it in the position of answering for him.

What happens next?

The club decides whether a statement is the whole response. The open questions are discipline, an apology, and whether Santander addresses the posts at all, and none of them has an answer yet. Baseball’s offseason has already been full of off-field stories, from a pitcher missing an elimination game for the birth of his first child to Ronald Acuna Jr denying a podcast clip was aimed at his manager and Brewers manager Pat Murphy cursing a player on live television, and the pattern in each case is the same: the club speaks first, the player speaks second, and the gap between the two is where the story lives. Santander’s gap is now a day old. The Blue Jays have said the posts do not represent them. The next word belongs to the player, and the one after that belongs to the club.