Daulton Varsho was a revelation for many Blue Jays fans in 2025, despite his limited plate appearances. The trade that brought him to Toronto in 2023 sparked controversy due to his lagging offence, but the Wisconsin native managed to turn around the discourse by making highlight reel plays every week in the outfield and showing off his power at the plate.

Varsho’s slashline of .238/.284/.548 didn’t particularly jump off the page, but his 55 RBIs and 20 home runs in 71 games indicate his potential to generate more offensive value. He only slashed .227/.284/.427 in 18 games during their October run, but he still played an important offensive role by homering three times and scoring 12 runs.

Should Varsho stay healthy for a full year and keep up his performance from 2025, he could help fill the void in the Blue Jays’ offensive core.

There’s no argument about the 29-year-old’s defence. Ever since moving to the outfield in Arizona, Varsho has caught everyone’s attention with his run speed and accurate catches. His foolproof defence was one of the biggest reasons why the Blue Jays were willing to bring him through a trade to fortify their defence after a failed attempt at reaching the playoffs.

The outfielder will most certainly bring more defensive runs saved to the plate if he can make close to 100 games in the coming season. At his best, FanGraphs rated Varshos’ defence at 14 in 151 games. His defensive performance dipped in 2023 with FanGraphs’ defensive metric of 7.9 in 158 games, but he brought back his defensive value in 2024 to 12.7 in 136 games. Varsho’s defence was at 4.7 in his injury-marred 2025 season, which indicates that Varsho could have potentially doubled his defensive numbers had he stayed off the injured list.

Centre field is one of the hardest positions to play defence in, and Varsho won a Gold Glove in 2024 in that position. Unless the Blue Jays discover another defensive wizard, they will most likely rely on Varsho to provide the steady defence in a challenging role.

Where the Blue Jays could cautiously be optimistic with Varsho is in his power and ability to get on base. Despite playing for roughly half of the 2025 season, the outfielder clubbed 20 home runs, which was coming close to his offensive peak back in the 2022 season.

Varsho’s batting average and on-base percentage hovered around the league average, yet his slugging was consistently above average. His slugging was exceptional compared to the MLB average in 2025 (.548 vs .430), but it would have eventually evened out had he played more games. Even after factoring this in, the outfielder might have been on track to beat his offensive peak in the 2022 season.

For comparison, Varsho slashed .235/.302/.443 with 74 RBIs and 27 home runs in 151 games, which resembles his 2025 slashline. This trend could be a preview of the impact of healthy Varsho on the Blue Jays’ lineup. With Toronto parting ways with all-star shortstop Bo Bichette this offseason and bringing in utilityman Kazuma Okamoto, who enters the campaign with some question marks, Varsho could turn into a wild card if he manages to hit between 20 and 27 home runs.

Aside from his power, the outfielder also has a good sprint speed, which could help generate more runs while creating more chaos on the basepaths. At his healthiest in 2022 and 2023, Varsho stole 16 bases, which is a glimpse into how much more on-field value healthy Varsho would bring on the base in 2026.

Daulton Varsho hasn’t shown all of his potential yet; he has more to prove this upcoming season. Unlocking his bat for a full season may be the key to his prime and the Blue Jays’ path back to contention.

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