Blue Jays finally seeing some reward to the Daulton Varsho trade

In December of 2022, the Toronto Blue Jays and Arizona Diamondbacks made a blockbuster trade, with Arizona sending outfielder and catcher, Daulton Varsho, to the Blue Jays in exchange for outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and catcher Gabriel Moreno.

The Diamondbacks were looking to thin their outfield out, with prospects such as Jake McCarthy, Alek Thomas and Corbin Carroll on the way. Behind the plate, Carson Kelly just wasn't cutting it, and they needed an upgrade. Toronto was in need of an outfielder with the loss of Teoscar Hernandez and the team wanting to move George Springer out of centerfield. It was a perfect match, although many were surprised Moreno was the catcher that was moved.

Based on last season, it seemed pretty definitive that the Snakes had won the trade so far, with Gurriel hitting 24 homers, Moreno winning a Gold Glove as a rookie and both contributing to a National League Pennant run.

Varsho, however, struggled in his first full season in Toronto, but it looks like he might be finding his groove again.

Could Daulton Varsho be turning it around?

Varsho never got his footing in 2023. A former catcher turned outfielder because of how athletic he is, Varsho didn't see any time behind the plate in his first season in Toronto due to their need in the outfield. While he was a Gold Glove finalist in 2023, his offense took a tumble.

In his final season with Arizona in 2022, he posted a 107 wRC+ with 27 homers. He wasn't an elite bat, but he was still above league average and paired that with his great outfield defense. In 2023 his wRC+ fell to 85 and he hit 20 home runs. Meaning, he was 15 percent below league average as a hitter and was a pretty big negative at the plate.

However, he seems to be turning it around at the plate as of late. Since April 9, Varsho is hitting .320 with four home runs and 8 RBIs. Sure, it's a small sample, but it looks like he is heating up.

If you look at his overall stats on the season, it may not look terrific. He's hitting .218 with a .768 OPS on the year, but that doesn't tell the full story. Yes, he has been getting hot over the last week, but he's also getting pretty unlucky thus far. Coming into Wednesday, before his two-homer game against the Yankees, his batting average was .196, but his BABIP was .229. It's not the biggest difference ever, but it still shows that he has been playing better than his basic numbers suggest.

In terms of batted ball velocity, he has an 87.6 average exit velocity, equaling Jose Ramirez and even ahead of players like Freddie Freeman and Marcus Semien. The peripherals don't look too bad, and he's even accumulated more bWAR than Ramirez and Freeman so far.

It's still very early in the year and while he has been getting hot lately, there's still no telling how his season will turn out. That said, it looks like he is trending in a better direction than he was last year, especially at the plate. It might be tough to win the trade in the end, especially if Moreno is going to turn into one of the better catchers in baseball. If Varsho can be what he was in Arizona, he might be a very important part of a playoff push for Toronto.