Ross Atkins has made a habit of showing his hand in free agency, and the Blue Jays’ recent moves make the shape of this winter pretty easy to sketch out. Toronto’s general manager has leaned into the top of the market, dipped into the Asian pipeline, spent more freely on bullpen help over the last two offseasons and kept hunting for power. If that pattern holds, the Jays’ next wave of targets should look a lot like the names below.
Freddy Peralta sits near the top of that list because he fits the mold of the kind of splash Atkins has already made. He’s the closest parallel to Dylan Cease, the seven-year, $210 million addition Toronto made last winter.
Peralta’s 2026 season was split in two after Milwaukee dealt him to the Mets in January. He went 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts there, then changed the conversation entirely after a deadline move to Tampa Bay.
With the Rays, he finished 5-2 with a 3.25 ERA, won AL Pitcher of the Month for September and then took ALCS MVP honors after throwing 12 innings with a 0.75 ERA. His World Series Game 3 start was rough - 4.2 innings, five earned runs - but he’s still projected by Jim Bowden of The Athletic to land something in the neighborhood of five years and $140 million.
That kind of price tag may raise eyebrows, just as Cease’s deal did, but Toronto has already shown it’s willing to pay for a frontline arm even when the fit isn’t obvious on paper.
The overseas route also remains very much in play, and Teruaki Sato looks like the kind of bat Toronto could chase if it wants to keep building that pipeline. The 27-year-old was the NPB MVP in 2026 for Hanshin, winning the Triple Crown while hitting .306/.383/.609 with 39 homers and 106 RBI.
ESPN projects him for five years and $115 million. He would be a natural sequel to last winter’s Kazuma Okamoto signing, which marked Toronto’s first major win in the Pacific Rim after missing on Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.
The issue, as TSN baseball analyst Steve Phillips pointed out, is obvious: there may not be a clean place for Sato to play. Okamoto has third base, Anthony Santander’s contract blocks left field, and Toronto’s roster already has some congestion.
Still, after the social media firestorm around Santander this past week and his injury issues over the first two years of his five-year deal, Sato could be the kind of addition that nudges Santander closer to the door.
Suzuki brings a different kind of appeal. The 32-year-old outfielder hit .270/.368/.473 with 26 home runs and 86 RBI in 143 games for the Cubs, and he’s posted a 125 to 135 OPS+ in every major league season.
Over the last two years, he’s averaged 29 homers and 95 RBI. The question is whether those numbers travel with him and whether he’s already past his peak.
What Toronto would be buying, though, is a more stable version of the upside it chased with Santander: a bat that can clear 20 homers, reach a .360-plus on-base percentage and provide steadier defense. Suzuki also comes with qualifying-offer baggage, so draft-pick compensation would be part of the cost.
The projected price tag is five years and $120 million, but the profile fits the kind of impact bat Atkins keeps circling.
Kaima Taira gives Toronto another possible overseas lane, this time on the mound. The 26-year-old right-hander led the NPB with a 1.36 ERA in 2026, going 12-5 with a 0.96 WHIP and 141 strikeouts in 145 innings as a starter.
The year before, he posted a 1.71 ERA and saved 31 games as a closer. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel projects him for five years and $72.5 million, a number that looks manageable if the Blue Jays believe in the role flexibility.
That’s part of the appeal here, much like Cody Ponce’s three-year, $30 million deal. Taira could be deployed in more than one way, and that sort of versatility is exactly why Toronto may keep shopping in that market.
Then there’s Alex Vesia, the bullpen arm who lines up neatly with Atkins’ recent spending habits. Toronto has already shown it’s willing to pay for relief help, bringing in Jeff Hoffman on a three-year, $33 million deal in 2025 and Tyler Rogers on a three-year, $37 million deal in 2026.
Vesia is projected by The Athletic for two years and $22 million, and he checks the boxes Toronto seems to value: left-handed depth and swing-and-miss stuff. His 11.48 K/9 rate over 58 innings would have led the Blue Jays’ qualified relievers, which is exactly the sort of detail that makes him look like an Atkins target.
This is the kind of market Toronto usually attacks. The real question is how many of these names the Blue Jays can actually land in a class that’s expected to be heavily contested despite being viewed as a weaker group overall.
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Griffins path makes the case even more interesting because he has already shown he can get back to the majors after spending time in Japan, and he did it while working through some less-than-ideal defensive support behind him. For a Blue Jays club that values stability on the mound, the appeal is obvious, even if the next step is figuring out just how far Toronto wants to go to bring him into the fold. [Read more 🡒]