Coming into the 2025 season, we had gotten to know Daulton Varsho as a great glove/low average/with some power guy.
He had a .217/.289/.398 batting line with 38 home runs in his first two seasons with the team. The old man in me has a hard time believing a .217 hitter could be a valuable player, but his 8.6 bWAR over the two years seems to suggest otherwise.
His defense in center is the best we’ve seen since Devon White (and it might be as good as White’s, which seems almost sacrilege to think).
Daulton came into the 2025 season rehabbing from shoulder surgery in the off-season, that would cost him the first 28 games on the season. When he came back:
Standard Batting Table Age WAR G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GIDP HBP SH SF IBB 28 2.8 71 271 248 43 59 13 2 20 55 2 0 17 77 .238 .284 .548 .833 122 136 1 1 0 5 1
Baseball Reference has him at a 2.8 bWAR and FanGraphs 2.2 (dropping from 5.0 bWAR and 3.1 fWAR last year), giving him a value of $17.7 million to the Jays.
Daulton had a .345 wOBA (last year .304 ) and a 123 wRC+ (up from 99 last year).
His BABIP was .250 (.262 last year).
Varsho’s walk rate was 6.3% (down from 9.4), and his strikeout rate was 28.4% (up from 26.7).
His line-drive rate was up (16.9% from 15.0%). The ground ball rate was down (28.5% from 32.2). And fly ball rate was up (54.7% from 52.9). 21.3% of his fly balls left the park (way up from 10.8% last year).
Soft contact was down (17.6% from 22.2), and hard contact was way up (36.9% from 29.6).
Varsho hit LHP (.260/.321/.380) better for average and on base percentage, but had much better power vs RHP (.232/.274/.591), but had much better power against RHP. The last couple of years he hit lefties better, which is weird.
He hit slightly better on the road (.239/.287/.561) than at home (.237/.282/.534).
Daulton hit better in the second half of the season (.256/.310/.551) than in the first half (.207/.240/.543).
April: .286/.714 with 1 home run 2 walks and 3 strikeouts in 2 games.May: ..200/.220/.529 with 7 home runs, 3 walks and 28 strikeouts in 22 games.August: .250/.329/.597 with 7 home runs, 8 walks and 23 strikeouts in 24 games.September: .262/.292/.512 with 5 home runs, 4 walks and 23 strikeouts in 23 games.
With runners in scoring position, Daulton hit .258/.280/.606. In high-leverage spots, he hit .214/.266/.482. In low leverage spots, he hit .280/.315/.720.
Daulton played 68 games in center field, starting 63 of them. He made one error for .993 FA (league average .991). He was a +9 outs above average (fourth in the AL, the ones above him played more innings).
He was 0.3 runs above average as a baserunner. He was 2 for 2 as a base stealer.
Varsho’s spot in the batting order as a starter:
1st: 1 game: .000/.200/.000.2nd: 2 games: ..273/.273/455.3rd: 12 games: .157/.151/.431.4th: 3 games: .083/.154/.333.5th: 23 games: .258/.310/.607.6th: 18 games: .308/.357/.723.7th: 4 games: .083/.267/.083.8th: 1 games: .750/.750/.750.
The Jays were 37-27 in games he started. His longest hit streak was 5 games. Longest on-base streak was 7 games. Longes without a home run 12 games. Longest without a hit was 4 games.
Postseason Batting Table Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GIDP HBP SF Pos AL 4 17 16 7 7 3 0 2 4 0 0 1 3 .438 .471 1.000 1.471 16 1 0 0 */8 AL 7 29 28 1 5 1 0 0 4 0 0 1 9 .179 .207 .214 .421 6 0 0 0 */8 WS 7 35 31 4 5 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 7 .161 .257 .323 .580 10 1 2 0 */8 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/14/2025.
Varsho had a tough season, missing the first month rehabbing from surgery. Then missing two months with a hamstring issue and then getting hit on the hand with a pitch, but he hit the ball hard when he was in the lineup and, of course, played terrific defense.
He did seem to be the one guy who was immune to the ‘make contact’ approach at the plate (he had the highest strikeout rate on the team). If he could improve a little on that, it would be a good thing, but when you swing hard, you are going to miss sometimes.
Daulton is always going to be a streak hitter. He’ll have a good week or two, and we move his up in the order, just in time for the streak to end. But managers are always going to do that sutff, and I just have to live with it. But, batting him third is one of those things that John should never do. Bat him towards the back of the order and be happy with the production you get.
But then, he had a 122 OPS+, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. He seemed to do best in the 5th or 6th spot of the order.
I wouldn’t read too much into his hitting much better in low leaverage spots. In his career, he’s had an .829 OPS in high leaverage spots, .706 in medium and .699 in low leaverage.
Daulton’s had an 11.6 total bWAR since joining the Jays. e the trade, Lourdes Gurriel has posted a 5.4 bWAR and Gabriel Moreno 8.5, so it has worked out well for us.
Varsho is under contract for next year; after that, he can become a free agent, going into his age-30 season. He’ll likely want a long-term deal. The Jays will have to decide how long they would feel comfortable going. Kevin Kiermaier’s last season was at age 34. He was still a good defensive player, but his bat got to where even his glove couldn’t keep him in the league. I don’t know that you would want to sign Daulton much beyond his age-34 season.