Former Blue Jay Daulton Varsho undergoes wrist surgery to remove multiple cysts
Photo credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
By Thomas Hall
Sep 30, 2026, 20:15 EDTUpdated: Sep 30, 2026, 20:18 EDT
Injured outfielder Daulton Varsho underwent left arthroscopic wrist surgery on Tuesday, per the Houston Astros’ announcement, officially ending his 2026 season.
The club placed Varsho on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation on Sep. 24, marking the end of his regular season and deeming him ineligible to participate in their AL wild-card series matchup against the Chicago White Sox — who swept them in two games in the best-of-three series at Daikin Park.
Houston dealt right-hander Spencer Arrighetti — under club control through 2030 — to the Toronto Blue Jays at this season’s trade deadline for Varsho, who has been experiencing mobility issues and discomfort in his left wrist caused by a pair of cysts that have now been removed. They were pushing against a ligament, an issue that dates back to before the trade.
“It sucks,” Varsho told reporters in Sacramento last week, including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. “I’ve been dealing with it for three months, and it’s gotten to the point it’s frustrating because I can’t go out there and perform as well as I want to, and I’m not able to get to the pitches that I’ve normally hit throughout my whole career. It’s just hindering my play.”
The 30-year-old outfielder, who received a cortisone injection while still a member of the Blue Jays, played the entire season with these cysts. But they became a much greater problem down the stretch, prompting his necessary IL stint and subsequent procedure. Before choosing this last resort, the left-handed slugger — who blasted 20 home runs across 71 games last season, but finished only with 12 over twice as many games split between Toronto and Houston this year — attempted to alter his swing mechanics in hopes of finding a short-term solution.
But those attempts proved all for naught.
After slumping across a .172/.224/.311 slash line with an elevated 22.4 per cent strikeout rate (up nearly three per cent from his Blue Jays tenure) and a 48 wRC+ (100 league average) in 41 games with the Astros, Varsho decided to shut it down and opt for surgery.
“The pain just became too much,” the soon-to-be free agent said. “Every swing I was taking in games, I was like, ‘This is killing me.’ It doesn’t really make sense and I’m really not having good results from it. I was kind of hurting myself and the team at the same time. It’s one of the frustrating things. I know when I’m healthy and I’m there, I hit a lot more pitches than I was at that point.”
Prior to August’s trade deadline, Varsho was hitting just .243/.307/.375 with a 91 wRC+, worth 1.1 fWAR over 99 games — an underwhelming, but sizeable improvement from his minus-0.3 rating as an Astro. Last year, however, his impressive power stroke — which included a trio of round-trippers in 81 plate appearances en route to the club’s World Series appearance — propelled him towards being a two-win player across half a season’s worth of production during the regular season.
Varsho’s defence also took a noticeable step back in ’26 — as did his agility, posting a career-low sprint speed (27.4 feet per second) — on top of registering his lowest defensive runs saved (zero), outs above average (seven) and fielding run value (four) since 2022.
Securing a multi-year deal in free agency could very well be off the table now. Varsho’s best hope moving forward may involve a one-year, prove-it deal to re-establish his market value in 2027.
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