One year after finishing in last place in the American League East, the Toronto Blue Jays staged a remarkable comeback in 2025. Not only did they manage a “worst-to-first” turnaround winning 94 games, 20 more than a year earlier, the Jays came within two outs of winning only the third World Series in the 49-year history of the franchise — which began as an expansion team in 1977.
With baseball’s annual Winter Meetings, traditionally the busiest three days of the MLB offseason, starting on Monday, Toronto must make some quick decisions on how far it is willing to go to improve on the results of this year.
Blue Jays Going For World Series Again
The Blue Jays started the year signaling that they were serious about contending, putting together the fifth-highest payroll in the game, their highest payroll relative to the other 31 MLB teams since 2017.
Heading into 2026, Blue Jays owners Rogers Communications Inc. and team president and CEO Mark Shapiro are giving every indication that they plan to push the payroll even further as they go all-out to better their performance this year.
Early in the season, they signed five-time All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero to a 14-year, $500 million contract extension. Then earlier this week the Jays finalized the signing of former San Diego Padres ace Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million free agent contract.
6 Contracts Topping $100 Million
But what about their two-time All-Star shortstop Bo Bichette, who is now a free agent? Will Shapiro bring the 27-year-old with 111 career home runs back to Toronto? On Wednesday, one Blue Jays insider gave an update on what it will likely take to bring Bichette back to Rogers Centre. But will the Blue Jays do it?
For good measure, the Blue Jays on Wednesday announced that they will spend $30 million over three years to bring in righty Cody Ponce, who has not pitched in the United States since 2021 — but won the Korea Baseball Organization’s MVP award as well as the KBO’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award this year, with a 1.89 ERA and 252 strikeouts in 180 2/3 innings.
And Shapiro shows no signs of slowing down, at least not yet. The Blue Jays on Wednesday hosted top free agent Kyle Tucker at their state-of-the-art Florida spring training facility. Tucker has an OPS of .865 with 147 home runs and 160 doubles in his eight-year career, and is projected to receive a contract of 10 years, $350 million, according to CBS Sports, though some estimates range up to $400 million for the 28-year-old former first-round draft pick.
If the Blue Jays do bite on a Tucker signing, they would carry seven contracts valued at at least $106.5 million into next season and for much of the next decade.
Latest Bichette Update
What would they need to add to that total to bring back Bichette? According to Blue Jays insider Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, the Blue Jays should look at what the San Francisco Giants gave then-free-agent shortstop Willy Adames last year — namely, “a seven-year, $182 million deal,” Matheson wrote. “That’s an AAV of $26 million, also close to (George) Springer’s annual salary on his current deal ($25 million AAV).”
But Springer’s contract comes off the books after the upcoming season, when the then-37-year-old will either become a free agent or simply retire.
Matheson says that Bichette may even command a contract worth up to $200 million. Would the Blue Jays be willing to add that total to their payroll ledger along with their other, numerous nine-figure deals? According to Matheson, the club has “the money and the motivation.”
And this time the MLB.com insider adds, with the Blue Jays having proven that they are genuine World Series contenders, they own the “tiebreaker” over offers from other teams, as well.
