George Springer found a nook in his locker to rest his phone every day. Propping the device against a water bottle or glove, the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder called Daulton Varsho ahead of each game for their daily catch-up.
Varsho has been away from the Blue Jays for a month as he works back from offseason shoulder surgery — advancing from extended spring training games in Dunedin, Fla., to rehab contests with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons. The outfielders always found a moment for a FaceTime.
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The pair became fast friends when Varsho was traded to the Blue Jays ahead of the 2023 season, dancing in the outfield after wins and lobbing jokes and jabs in their corner of the clubhouse. With Varsho’s activation expected ahead of Toronto’s series opener against the Red Sox on Tuesday, Springer is probably the happiest guy on the team, manager John Schneider said. The FaceTimes can finally end.
“Locker mate back, little brother back,” Schneider said. “They can beat up on one another and all that stuff. So yeah, George is probably on cloud nine.”
But Varsho can provide more than just an audience for Springer’s jokes. In many ways, the lefty hitter brings everything the Blue Jays’ lineup lacks this year. Varsho, known more for his Gold Glove defence, has been a below-average hitter in two seasons with the Blue Jays. But he could be the unexpected spark for a Toronto offense that desperately needs one, coming off a 1-5 road trip in which they scored just 1.5 runs per game.
“He obviously fits well on our team,” Springer said. “He can hit one over the fence and control the zone, too.”
Varsho hit 18 home runs in 136 games last year and the Blue Jays could certainly use more of that. His .407 slugging percentage in 2024 would be fourth on the current Blue Jays, behind Tyler Heineman, Springer and Myles Straw. But it’s how Varsho gets to that power that separates him from the rest of Toronto’s lineup.
Varsho keeps CRUSHING 💪
His fourth of the Spring! pic.twitter.com/y6ftOM9a86
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) March 13, 2025
The Blue Jays entered Monday with the fifth-lowest fly-ball rate in baseball and the fourth-lowest pull rate. The result is a lineup that ranks 26th in runs scored and 23rd in wRC+. Varsho is the antithesis of that approach. Last year, he was the only Blue Jays hitter to pull the ball (51.5 percent) or put it in the air (52.9 percent) more than half the time.
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That kind of offensive profile has imperfections. The 2024 Gold Glove winner is prone to infield flies, strikes out a lot and can be extremely streaky. But, when he’s on, Varsho yanks the ball in the air a bunch — the easiest way to hit a homer. It’s really the same profile as Anthony Santander, the guy Toronto paid $92.5 million this offseason to provide pop.
Santander hit 44 homers last year with the Orioles, with 38 coming to the pull side. He has struggled to kick off 2025, hitting .179 with three homers in his first 27 games. But maybe Varsho can provide that needed pull power in the meantime, with help from some adjustments.
“I think he can be a guy that can take some shots,” Schneider said of Varsho. “And we’re looking for it out of him, for sure.”
Shoulder injuries can be scary for hitters, but Varsho’s rotator cuff surgery mainly impacted his throws from the outfield. By spring training, he was fully cleared to hit and came to the plate with subtle tweaks to his hand placement, standing slightly higher in the box. The changes help Varsho swing down on the high fastball — aiming to cut down on his 17.5 percent infield fly-ball rate that ranked 12th in MLB last year. He naturally puts the ball in the air a lot, but getting too far under a pitch results in easy outs.
During Grapefruit League action, Varsho’s tweaks earned him a team-high four homers and the third-best slugging percentage among Blue Jays with at least 15 at-bats. That success didn’t carry over to minor-league rehab action, as the outfielder hit just .120 in seven games while working back to game speed.
Even if Varsho regains that spring form, he can’t single-handedly fix this offense. But, if the pull power connects when Varsho arrives in Toronto, Springer won’t be the only one happy to see him.
(Photo of George Springer and Daulton Varsho from Aug. 31: Adam Bettcher / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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