After some truly disappointing near-misses for the Blue Jays with this offseason’s free agent class, the momentum has started to shift back in a positive direction lately.

It started to feel that way after they inked Jeff Hoffman to a 3-year contract to help solidify the back of their bullpen, but then reports of two previous failed physicals for the right-hander took a bit of the shine off of their big acquisition. They then finished second, again to the Dodgers, this time picking up the silver in their pursuit of Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki. I’ll be the first to say that it felt like the roof was caving in on this team in a hurry, at least to me.

However, Monday’s announcement of a contract reached with Anthony Santander did a lot to lift the spirits of many Blue Jays fans across the country. The switch-hitting slugger checks a lot of the boxes that the lineup sorely needed, as he’s averaged 35 home runs per year over the last three seasons, brings some balance to the lineup against righties by hitting from the left side, and can fill a vacancy both in a corner outfield role and likely in the cleanup spot in the lineup hitting behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He’s also a competent first baseman, which helps if they plan to use Guerrero Jr. at the hot corner much in 2025.

I’ve been pretty critical of Ross Atkins and the front office for the way the offseason has gone so far, but I’ll give them credit with Santander’s 5-year, 92.5 million dollar contract. They managed to drop his AAV down to $14 million per season with some creativity by including deferred payments. With that in mind, naturally, most of us are wondering if there’s still room to add more, and over the last few days we may have received some clues about the answer to that question.

Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi came out with an excellent article on Tuesday that summarizes a lot of the situation, especially this quote that he included from Atkins:

As Davidi aptly puts it in his article, “Translated from Executive to English, anything else the Blue Jays want to do requires ownership approval, an indication they’ve hit their budgetary cap.”

At first glance, those two statements might seem contradictory, but Davidi hits the nail on the head with the “Executive to English” jab.

Atkins knows the executive language very well, and he’s long been careful with how he phrases his answers to questions. However, I think it’s safe to say that he acknowledges that opportunities (and holes in the roster) still exist at this later stage of the offseason, and he’s confident he can at least present ideas and proposals to ownership. To what shouldn’t be much of a surprise at this point, there is always a limit to how much payroll space there is to work with- and they’ve used the majority of the allotted funds, and maybe then some. To the credit of ownership, they’ve now approved a payroll of roughly $263 million according to yesterday’s tweet from Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, which far surpasses any payroll this team had in the past.

If that’s the case, what kind of opportunities might Atkins be referring to?

In my view, Davidi summed it up well by saying, “But in stating publicly that further adds must be escalated up to the ownership level, Atkins is telling everyone that the Blue Jays need a strong business case to get more financial rope.” So, what does “strong business case” mean? I’d interpret that as meaning:

1 – Acquiring a marketable player that would theoretically help sell more tickets, jerseys, and merchandise

and/or

2. Someone Atkins and his team really believe they can sell to ownership, especially if an opportunity for a potential bargain presents itself.

My assumption is the list of players that would fit that description is pretty short, at least from the remaining free agents still on the market. However, if there’s a chance to sign a guy like Pete Alonso or Alex Bregman at well below market value, then I think that’s the kind of thing Atkins is likely referring to here.

Unfortunately, it’s more than just a dollar spent when the payroll has hit $263 million already, as they’ll have to pay a 20% tax on every dollar above $241 million, and also a 12% surcharge on anything above $261 million. The penalties get even steeper (42.5%!) if their payroll gets above $281 million, so at this point, even a lower-profile free agent needs to be significantly better than the in-house options already available on the 40-man roster. For example, I would guess that the Blue Jays would likely be out on cheaper potential third-base options like Yoan Moncada or Jorge Polanco.

It remains to be seen how the rest of this offseason plays out for the Blue Jays, but it feels like there is still work to be done, and there are still some talented players on the free-agent market. It’s also possible that Atkins and company look to the trade market as well, especially considering the abundance of big league ready middle infielders that they have under contract. However, until names like Alonso, Bregman, and maybe even Max Scherzer come off the board, the speculation, and the temptation, will still be there taunting us all.