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Daulton Varsho focusing on what he can control amid trade speculation: ‘I want to be a Blue Jay’
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Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Thomas Hall
Jul 22, 2026, 23:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 22, 2026, 23:10 EDT
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TORONTO — In a perfect world, Daulton Varsho would prefer to remain a Blue Jay, not just through the rest of this season, but probably for the remainder of his career. As the reality of an eventual sell-off begins to set in amongst this group, though, that hope is slipping further and further away.
Over the next 12 days — barring a very, very last-minute winning streak — Varsho will be one of many Blue Jays players whose names you’ll see listed in trade rumours leading up to the Aug. 3 deadline. Given that Toronto’s everyday centre fielder is also one of the organization’s impending free agents, his chances of finishing the 2026 campaign in another jersey are fairly high.
Inside the Blue Jays clubhouse, the players aren’t oblivious to that noise. They hear it. It’d be difficult not to at this point, having lost five of six post-All-Star break. They know what’s at stake over these remaining games before the trade deadline. But that hasn’t made what’s likely to come any easier to grapple with.
“I mean, obviously everybody talks about it. They’re obviously in our thoughts,” Varsho said during what could potentially be his final homestand with this team. “But for the most part, I can’t really think about those [thoughts], and honestly, I don’t really want to think about those because I want to be a Blue Jay, and I enjoy being here.”
Since being traded to the Blue Jays organization during the 2022-23 off-season, Varsho has established himself as a fixture in the outfield, accounting for 7.3 fWAR over his first three seasons — fifth among the franchise’s position players, behind only Bo Bichette (8.0), George Springer (8.0), Alejandro Kirk (9.7) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (10.4).
Defensively, he’s also logged more innings (2,915.2) than any other outfielder who’s suited up for this team in that span.
Varsho has meant a lot to Toronto in his time here, becoming one of the core fundamental pieces during this competitive window. But nothing lasts forever. All good things must come to an end eventually, and it appears we’re likely headed towards that conclusion.
“It’s one of those things where it’s like if it happens, it happens,” Varsho said. “I have no control over it. It’s not like I’m other guys who have no-trade clauses or you can do what you want. Yeah, it’s just one of those things where I’m at that state where it’s like I don’t have a choice, so it doesn’t really matter what I think.”
Back in spring training, Varsho seemed poised for a career year, coming off his impressive, albeit injury-riddled 71-game sample size from a year ago. Oh, how we were wrong about that.
If he could hit 20 home runs, drive in 55 runs, slug .548, produce a 123 wRC+ (100 league average) and remain an elite defender across half a season, then he could surely become one of baseball’s best all-around outfielders over an entire 162-game schedule if he stays healthy this time around, right?
Maybe in an alternate universe. In this one, however, he has certainly fallen significantly short of that ceiling. Instead, through 89 games in ’26, he’s put forward a disappointing .237/.301/.377 slash line and 88 wRC+ to go along with only seven home runs and 25 RBIs. That, of course, isn’t exactly helping the front office’s case if they do indeed end up as sellers.
Nor is the fact that Varsho’s defence has, for one reason or another, taken a noticeable step back this season — his botched attempt to catch Yandy Díaz’s fly ball in the sixth inning on Wednesday is another example of that. So is the significant year-to-year decline in his advanced defensive metrics.
Innings
DRS
OAA
FRV
2025
550.1
+10
+9
+6 (84th percentile)
2026 (entering Wednesday)
693.2
+1
+4
+3 (76th percentile)
Pair these with Varsho sporting the lowest average sprint speed (27.3 feet per second) of his career, plus the fact that he’s now 30, and you have what the industry likely considers a depreciating asset.
Which begs the question: what should the Blue Jays’ brass do here? Trading Varsho immediately creates a large vacancy in centre field, one not easily filled internally. However, you could argue that, considering he’s represented by agent Scott Boras, whose clients almost always are encouraged to bet on themselves in free agency, isn’t this team ticketed for that fate anyway? Perhaps. But there is potential upside to holding onto him post-deadline, too.
Should Varsho survive next month’s trade deadline, there’s a chance — whatever the percentage of that is — his bat could catch fire over the final two months of the season. If that happens, maybe it’d be easier to justify tendering him a qualifying offer, which, at the moment, he may accept. But if his free-agent value improved, the likelier he’d decline it, netting the organization a future compensatory draft pick and, more importantly, a boost to their 2027 signing bonus pool.
To play devil’s advocate for a second, it’s possible that option B could outweigh option A when everything’s said and done. That’s a question only general manager Ross Atkins can likely answer right now, and even then, perhaps he isn’t 100 per cent certain one way or another yet, either.
Ultimately, Varsho’s bat will have plenty to say about what becomes of his fate between now and Aug. 3.
“We just got to play for one another. We got to go out there and have fun again,” Varsho said. “We’re kind of like the guy who get gets their dog kicked, and it’s like we’re just constantly getting kicked over and over and over. And it’s like, all right, we’re hopefully at rock bottom because it’s like, OK, now we can go upward.”
The clock is ticking, though, now that the Blue Jays have fallen 10 games below .500 and are watching their post-season aspirations turn to dust. Making matters even tougher is that Varsho isn’t the only trade candidate — let alone free-agent-to-be — they’ll need to decide on soon.
Perhaps the better question is, where will the front office draw the line on which players they’ll be willing to sell? We’ll learn the answer to that question in less than two weeks.

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