The Blue Jays’ Under-the-Radar Extension Candidate

The Toronto Blue Jays, coming off a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 14-year, $500M extension, are primed to lock up another one of their most important players. No, this isn’t in reference to Bo Bichette, an All-Star calibre shortstop having a decent 2025 season. It’s referring to Gold Glove-winning outfielder Daulton Varsho and his incredible abilities.

Varsho has only notched 45 plate appearances after returning to Toronto’s lineup following a shoulder surgery requiring a stint on the Jays’ injured list. In this small sample size, Daulton Varsho has clubbed 5 home runs with 11 RBI, and a slashline of .225/.267/.625 producing a strong 133 wRC+.

The Blue Jays avoided arbitration with Varsho over the past offseason with a $8.2M deal for the 2025 season, and he’s set to become a free agent in 2027. If Toronto wants to keep Varsho a Jay long-term, it’s going to have to happen pretty soon.

Invaluable Defense

Ever since he stepped foot in an MLB outfield, Varsho has been among the league’s best at tracking down baseballs hit beyond the diamond. Since his debut in 2020, no outfielders have made more Outs Above Average (OAA) than Varsho.

He stands atop this Baseball Savant leaderboard with 52 OAA since 2020, and the next closest outfielder in this timespan is Harrison Bader with 48 OAA. He also ranks third in all of MLB when the field is narrowed to 2022-2025, the years in which he played full seasons. Baseball Savant also notes Varsho has prevented more runs with his defense than any other outfielder with 47.

Varsho finally won his first career Gold Glove Award in 2024 for his outstanding abilities in the outfield, and it certainly won’t be his last. It is hotly debated whether he’s been snubbed of the award in previous years, but regardless of one’s stance on this, Varsho will go down as one of the most incredible defenders of his generation.

Varsho has shown time and time again that he brings a defensive prowess to the Blue Jays that dominates discussions on their outfield capabilities. Likely taking some influence from his now-former outfield teammate and multiple-time Platinum Glove winner Kevin Kiermaier, Varsho’s glove is among the most crucial individual skillsets that Toronto needs to keep.

Improving Offense

While Varsho’s defense has always been the priority and highlights of his repertoire as a player, his offensive ability might be on the increase in 2025 and beyond. The last two seasons have been ones to forget for Varsho in terms of offensive production, as he’s struggled mightily at producing consistently.

Varsho’s never been a primetime high-batting-average hitter, but hitting .217 over two full seasons isn’t exactly ideal. He’s barely over the .220 mark thus far in 2025 but his power has been out on full display. He’s notched 5 home runs already this season out of his 9 total hits, and 5 of his hits have had exit velocities of 104 MPH or higher. He even had a two-homer day on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays, so he’s able to string some of these big hits together.

Although Varsho isn’t a qualified hitter yet in 2025 (below 3.1 PA per team game played), he ranks among the league’s best in many rate stats as indicated by Baseball Savant. He boasts an incredible 24% barrel rate, 95.2 MPH average exit velocity, and a .550 xSLG. Despite the small sample size, he’s been a beast when he gets a hold of the ball.

Another interesting improvement for Varsho in 2025 is his bat speed. He ranks 23rd in all of MLB in bat speed among hitters with at least 50 swings, and he’s improved in this metric by exactly 2.0 MPH from 2024 to 2025. Perhaps a faster swing is giving him a more efficient path to the baseball and making barrels easier to come by.

Also worth noting is Varsho’s increase in aggressiveness at the plate, as his swing percentage has increased from 47.6% in 2024 to 58.8% in 2025. He’s also offering a swing more often than in previous seasons at pitches that are in the strike zone. His zone swing percentage has increased overall by over 13% from last season, and the results are easy to see.

Keeping the Core Together

Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins has already come to an agreement with Guerrero on a lengthy extension and has expressed interest in locking Bichette up to an extension as well. While these two have been linked to each other for their entire careers, it’s time that Varsho gets mentioned in the same context of the Jays’ future.

Toronto acquired Varsho in late 2022 in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for their top prospect in Gabriel Moreno and fan favourite Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Considering what the Jays gave up to add Varsho to this core, it would only make sense for their front office to pursue a lengthy extension with the outfielder.

Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star wrote that Ross Atkins has reportedly had discussions with Daulton Varsho on an extension dating back to the end of last season. According to Chisholm, Varsho said that he and the Blue Jays’ front office “originally had a talk about it before the season ended last year.”

The Jays have four players currently locked up to contracts until at least the 2030 season, those being Guerrero, Andrés Giménez, Anthony Santander, and Alejandro Kirk. Adding Varsho and his consistently incredible defense to this list and to Toronto’s roster of the future is certainly worth shelling some money out sometime this season.

Whether it comes this season, next season, or sometime in the offseasons in between now and 2027, Daulton Varsho’s value to the Blue Jays cannot be understated. If he’s not a part of Toronto’s future then there’ll be a massive hole in their production and consistency on both sides of the ball.