The JOYS of summer

How a cottage trip and a teammate helped Daulton Varsho find his game - and himself

- ETHAN DIAMANDAS

Daulton Varsho arrived in Toronto with a lot to prove. To himself. To his teammates. And to a Blue Jays fan base that had grand expectations for a player they barely knew.

Acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Christmas Eve in 2022 for Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Varsho raced into his first season with the Jays the only way he knew how: full steam ahead. As George Springer put it, his new teammate "did everything 1,000 miles an hour."

"Last year, I tried to do too much," Varsho told the Star in an interview prior to this weekend's series against the Diamondbacks, his first games in Arizona since the trade.

Varsho's first season with the Jays was decidedly not a resounding success. The 27-year-old outfielder found little momentum and finished with an OPS below .700. The experience was only made harder by the groaning of fans and pundits who watched the Jays take a step backward while Arizona made a surprise run to the World Series with Moreno and Gurriel as key pieces.

Year 2 has been better, at least for Varsho, as fans learn to appreciate his glove with an occasional glimpse of power at the plate. The Wisconsin native is finally comfortable in his own skin. His mettle manifests itself in the way he governs the outfield (either from left or centre) and the authority with which he crushes home runs (almost always to the same spot: halfway up the right-field bleachers).

Through 91 games, Varsho leads the Jays in Baseball Reference's wins above replacement metric (bWAR) at 2.9 and ranks second on the club with Il homers, despite an unsightly .196 batting average and a .670 OPS below the current league average of.708.

And while Varsho's cage-rat attitude ramps him up, his teammates slow him down, and that subtle relaxation has been the difference in 2024. Matt Chapman helped Varsho chill out last year, as did Whit Merrifield. But Springer, seven years Varsho's senior, has been by far the biggest influence.