TORONTO -- Daulton Varsho is coming … again.
First, it was the tail end of Varsho’s rehab from shoulder surgery that kept him on the IL to open the season, then a hamstring injury that got him just a month after he returned, but the Blue Jays are finally close to having their everyday center fielder back in the lineup.
Tuesday night in Single-A Dunedin, Varsho launched another home run in his rehab game, a no-doubter that cleared the high, familiar wall in the Blue Jays’ Spring Training home. That’s back-to-back games with a home run for Varsho, who launched eight in just 24 games with the big club before hitting the IL again. Now scheduled to join Triple-A Buffalo for the weekend -- putting him on track to potentially join the Blue Jays in Baltimore next Monday -- Varsho’s manager is just as anxious as he is to get him back in the lineup.
“It’s just another different look," John Schneider said. "We make a ton of contact, but having that legit power from the left side is another look to our lineup that can do a lot of things. He’s kind of the lost guy. He made some big adjustments in the offseason with [hitting coach David] Popkins and they seem to be working.”
In a strange way, Varsho’s time on the IL has passed by quietly. Perhaps the Anthony Santander story has overshadowed Varsho as the Blue Jays’ big offseason signing continues to deal with a long, sometimes-mysterious shoulder issue that is threatening to cut his first season in Toronto painfully short. Varsho’s rehab has been slow and steady, nothing newsy about it. Frankly, with how well the Blue Jays have played in his absence, the attention has just been elsewhere.
Varsho is still a key piece of this team’s core, though. He’s beloved in the clubhouse -- teammates can already hear George Springer yelling “DAULTON!” -- and one of the faces of the Blue Jays’ identity as an elite defensive team. What’s most exciting, though, is the power Varsho has been flashing going back to the early days of 2025 in Dunedin.
“He’s probably one of the biggest pieces in our clubhouse for a variety of reasons,” Schneider said. “He sees what we’re doing, too, and he’s chomping at the bit to get back. He wants to be a part of it. Varsho doesn’t say much. He’s being patient, but he’s pissed he’s not here.”
When you combine Varsho’s return with an uptick in power from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., which has to be coming any day now (right?), some balance should be coming to the Blue Jays’ lineup. Their 105 home runs rank them 20th in MLB, and while they’ve done an incredible job of putting the ball in play and moving runners over, an extra home run each week would make this whole thing a lot easier on the Blue Jays.
This should simplify the Blue Jays’ ever-changing lineup construction, too. It can be fun, to a certain extent, for Schneider and the hitting staff to put that puzzle together in different ways each night, but eventually, some consistency can be helpful.
Myles Straw and Nathan Lukes have filled in admirably, each playing a far larger role than anyone expected going into the season, and Joey Loperfido deserves plenty of credit for grinding through the Triple-A season before immediately helping upon his promotion. With Varsho locked into the lineup each day in center, though, Schneider and his staff can chase matchups elsewhere for Lukes and Loperfido, in particular, with their offensive upside. It also makes it easier to DH George Springer on a majority basis, which he’s done throughout July.
The countermove to get Varsho on the roster is an interesting conversation, too. The Blue Jays have no problem carrying a lopsided amount of outfielders on their roster, so it doesn’t necessarily need to be Straw or Loperfido. Leo Jimenez and Will Wagner are also options, depending on how the Blue Jays want to shape their overall roster, but this is a good problem to have. Instead of trying to find enough big leaguers, they’re forced to decide among an excess of talent.
Something will feel right again when Varsho is back in this lineup. He’ll bring his defensive brilliance, of course, and always finds a way to make big plays in big games, but the pop Varsho offers is quietly what has the Blue Jays most excited to have him back in the lineup.