Varsho's favorite word this spring: 'Fun'

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson's Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Take a look at the Blue Jays through the new guy’s eyes.

Daulton Varsho comes from a young D-backs club that’s hoping to someday build what the Blue Jays already have. He’s parachuted into an AL East contender, going from a smaller market to a team that represents an entire country.

He’s fit in immediately, though, arriving alongside fellow newcomers Brandon Belt, Kevin Kiermaier, Erik Swanson and Chris Bassitt. This group, and the strides expected from the Blue Jays’ existing core, make the Blue Jays a threat to finally take that next step. Get Varsho talking about his new team, though, and it’s clear just how much he’s enjoying this.

“Literally everybody has something to say that has benefitted me already,” Varsho said. “You could name every single guy on the field, and they’ve each said something small to help me out. It’s been awesome to be able to pick their brains and talk about approach.

“It’s really been a lot of fun. Coming here and being able to have that open mind of listening to them, but also understanding who I am and making sure I don’t try to do too much, that’s been the conversation so far. ‘Trust who Daulton is, we all know you can play.’”

Earlier this week, he had that conversation with Bo Bichette. Even at Bichette’s age, when he speaks, players listen.

Varsho finally launched his first home run of the spring on March 22, a no-doubter to right field at Dunedin’s TD Ballpark. It had been a slow start to the spring for Varsho, which manager John Schneider compared to Matt Chapman and George Springer in recent years as new faces trying to make an impression, which is just fine. The games are about to start counting, and Varsho is finding his stride at the right time.

His focus has been about “getting into his back side” on his swing, a change we often hear about but rarely detail. Varsho has been trying to use his back foot, leg and hip to generate more power, but felt like his top half and bottom half suddenly weren’t in sync. To make it all work, he’s started to get his front foot down just slightly quicker, and suddenly it’s clicked.

The numbers will come for Varsho, who hit 27 home runs in 2022 with the D-backs and has the potential for more. His defense is already elite, though, and alongside Kiermaier and Springer, this outfield is a pitcher’s dream. The three have already formed a bond, including a series of hand signals to communicate during games.

“There’s going to be a lot of fly balls that are going to be caught that I don’t think were necessarily caught last year,” Varsho said. “Being able to have that communication and for Kevin to have that non-verbal cue [is important], because when you’re playing in front of 40,000 people, it gets loud fast.”

Varsho could be a part of this for a long time, too. He’s got four years of team control remaining, giving him a shot to be a part of this club’s core as it chases championships. Thinking back, that mid-December trade was the start of something special for Varsho.

“It was honestly kind of nice because I could enjoy Christmas with my family and then be able to figure some stuff out after,” Varsho said. “The whole process was actually pretty easy. The D-backs were obviously kind of frustrated sending me away, but they knew they were going to get two really great guys back. I think it was a win-win for both sides and it’s been a lot of fun for me here. I’m having a lot of fun.”

There’s that word again. Varsho is feeding off the energy around him, and as the Blue Jays rebrand as a more well-rounded team, few players embody that shift more than he does.