When the Blue Jays signed Steve Pearce to a two year, 12.5 million dollar deal before the 2017 season, it was met with a mixed reaction. That was mostly because it was pretty much the end of dreaming of Edwin Encarnacion returning to Toronto, especially after the front office had already signed Kendrys Morales to be the primary DH.
The original plan when he was signed was to have Pearce play a lot more first base, and perhaps spend a bit of time in the outfield. That was before Justin Smoak turned into an All-Star calibre first baseman, much to the surprise of pretty much everyone.