More at ease with Blue Jays, Daulton Varsho eyes bounce-back ...

DUNEDIN, Fla. — When Daulton Varsho was in high school, he threw his helmet to the ground after a frustrating at-bat. An older teammate — a player he looked up to — had done the same thing earlier in the game, so Varsho mimicked him.

After the game, Varsho’s father, Gary, a former big-league player and coach, had a stern conversation with his son.

“He goes, ‘Don’t ever do that again. You can’t follow what other people do disrespectfully and you just got to be able to know that you’re the bigger man and you’re going to get out. It’s a failure type of game,’” Varsho recalled his dad telling him. “He was just disappointed.”

It was a lesson Varsho learned early and has never forgotten, and it’s a reason why even amid an at-times trying first season with the Toronto Blue Jays at the plate last year, Varsho was as even-keeled as they come and never brought his offensive struggles into the outfield, where he excelled as statistically the top left fielder in baseball.

“There’s time to get excited and there’s actually some times to be mad, it’s OK, but on the field, you just can’t take it out with you, and I learned that early with catching,” said Varsho, who began his career as a catcher and still acts as the emergency backstop for Toronto. “If you take what you do at the plate back behind the dish, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Being a team-first guy who plays at full speed no matter the score is how Varsho quickly endeared himself to his teammates last year and often found himself the subject of playful teasing from teammates.

“They always want to get the quiet person to talk,” Varsho said with a smile.

“He has this smile that he will just hit you with and it’s just like, how do you not want to give him a hug?” Blue Jays centre fielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “He has that presence, that demeanour, and he’s a guy everyone enjoys being around him. And what he does on the field, some ups and downs for him last year, but I knew at the end of the day, I could always count on him. I knew he wasn’t going to take his at-bats to defence.”

Looking back on the 2023 season, when Varsho batted .220/.285/.389 with 20 home runs in 158 games, the 27-year-old said he put unfair pressure on himself to do more than he needed to impress his new team after the blockbuster offseason trade sent him from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Blue Jays for top prospect Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. He described the feeling as “trying to hit a home run every time.”

By the second half, once he was more comfortable in his new environment, Varsho said he was able to let go of some pressure, but still, the results didn’t come the way he wanted them to.

“Obviously, when you have very high expectations for yourself, you want to be able to live up to those, and when you’re not able to do that, you’re trying to put in extra work, trying to get better and obviously, last year was a great learning year for me, too,” he said. “Coming into a new division, being able to try to learn all the pitchers in a new league. It was a lot of fun, and obviously, it’s going to make me grow and be a better player this year.”

Throughout his offensive struggles last season, Varsho said he “gave a lot of at-bats away by hitting the ball too high in the air.”

During his offseason work, Varsho focussed on hitting the ball on a line and hitting it hard.

“Staying above the baseball and hitting the top part (of the ball) was a big emphasis for me this offseason,” he said. “And being able to make sure that I’m not getting stuck on my backside and making sure that I’m constantly going and attacking the ball moving forward.”

This spring, Varsho has come into camp feeling more at ease, and he began his Grapefruit League campaign Saturday with a 3-for-3 day with three RBIs against the Philadelphia Phillies at TD Ballpark. This year, Varsho knows his teammates, his surroundings and the staff, and he isn’t overwhelmed by the many introductions required when you’re a new player. His teammate Kiermaier has noticed Varsho has a clearer mind this spring.

“Last year, I know he was going up to the plate thinking a lot, and baseball is really difficult as is, but especially when you’re not locked in and you’re thinking about certain things,” Kiermaier said. “He seems a lot more free early on in camp. And I’ve said even in December, January — lock this guy in for a huge bounce-back year. He learned a lot from last year and I know he’s going to apply it for better results this year.”

Where Varsho couldn’t have been much better in 2023 was defensively. He led the majors with 29 defensive runs saved, manning both left and centre field, and was a significant factor for why Toronto was the best defensive outfield in MLB by a wide margin. Given his defensive prowess, there was surprise — and some dismay — around the Blue Jays when Varsho was snubbed for a Gold Glove, with the award instead going to Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians.

Kiermaier, who won his fourth Gold Glove last year, said not only did he think Varsho was robbed of a Gold Glove, but also he believed he “should have won a Platinum Glove,” as the game’s best defender, which is voted on by fans.

“He’ll never get enough credit for what he does,” Kiermaier said. “He’ll always be an unsung hero.”

Varsho, meanwhile, said he was disappointed to not win but is using it as motivation to get even sharper in the outfield.

“When everything goes really well and you’re doing everything you can, the awards will come,” he said. “You just keep putting your head down and keep grinding through.”

Varsho is looking forward to having Kiermaier and George Springer beside him in the outfield once again. Last year, they took time to mentor him, he said, and he learned a lot from their conversations.

“We try to have fun, but we’re also competing against each other, literally trying to make each other better every single day,” he said. “I think that’s a cool part about it is that we’re going to have our fun, but we’re also going to make each other better out there. And I think that’s the best part about our relationship.”

After the significant price the Blue Jays paid for Varsho in last offseason’s trade, there is an expectation the left fielder will contribute more on both sides of the ball this year. And with three more seasons of team control left before he’s scheduled to become a free agent, there is still time for Varsho to bring even more value to the Blue Jays.

“You don’t want to put too much pressure on Varsh, but we’re looking for a pretty good year out of him,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “He was still a really productive player for us last year, so just taking that next step offensively. I think when you’re comfortable, you can really hit the ground running.”

Meanwhile, Varsho is viewing this season as another opportunity to improve.

“You see rarely many guys that just come up here and are able to have success right away. It’s a big learning curve and it’s a big jump from Triple A to the big leagues,” Varsho said. “Every year, I’ve learned and been able to take something from every single season to be able to enhance and get better.”

(Top photo of Daulton Varsho batting late last season: Dan Hamilton / USA Today)