Louis Varland is warming in the bullpen.

That became a regular occurrence down the stretch of the Toronto Blue Jays’ magical 2025 season, as Varland, acquired from the Minnesota Twins ahead of last year’s trade deadline, morphed into manager John Schneider’s most trusted and dependable reliever. He became the franchise’s always-available arm.

Throughout baseball’s rich history, no pitcher had made more than 14 appearances in a single post-season, as former Blue Jays hurler Brandon Morrow (2017) and Paul Assenmacher (1997) both shared that playoff record — until Varland broke it with his 15th appearance in Game 7 of the World Series last November.

The 28-year-old reliever, who owned just two-thirds of an inning of post-season experience prior to last fall, appeared in 15 out of a possible 18 games, making 14 appearances out of the ‘pen and one as an opener.

Varland became a workhorse for the Blue Jays, logging 16 innings in the post-season, on top of the career-high 72.2 innings he compiled during the regular season split between Minnesota and Toronto, which also marked his first as a full-time reliever. Kevin Gausman infamously called the Varland trade “one of the greatest” moves this organization has ever made, and you’ll have a tough time finding anyone who’ll argue against that claim.

As Varland enters big-league camp this spring, preparing himself for his first full season with Toronto, he arrives as the bullpen’s biggest X-factor, offering the coaching staff a versatile weapon in just his second season since transitioning to the ‘pen.

Two years ago, Yimi García was Schneider’s go-to arm when a fire needed extinguishing — now it’s Varland, who quickly took over that role after arriving from Minnesota last season. As García now returns from his injury-riddled ’25 campaign, which nearly cost him the entire season, it’s worth wondering how the Blue Jays skipper will utilize two of his best high-leverage options, both of whom, as well as Tyler Rogers, will help bridge the gap to closer Jeff Hoffman this season.

García must prove he can stay healthy in 2026 after being hampered by right elbow and forearm injuries in consecutive seasons, limiting the 35-year-old righty to just 60 combined innings since ’24. With Varland, however, the club already knows how hard it can push him, and that’s why he’s likely to remain their primary put-out-the-fire reliever. Plus, as a former starter, he’s proven that he can handle a heavy workload.

Varland has also proven that he can be trusted in any situation or matchup, characteristics that may vault him into save situations when Hoffman’s unavailable.

With his starter’s arsenal, mostly dominated by an upper-90s exploding four-seamer and a high swing-and-miss knuckle curve, the 28-year-old matches up well against both righties and lefties. The latter of those two held a slight upper hand for most of last season, slashing .254/.290/.426 and striking out less than a quarter of the time in 132 plate appearances against him.

But as the year progressed, Varland countered by dramatically increasing his changeup’s usage — a pitch he had barely used all season entering September — in those right-on-left matchups, regaining the upper hand as lefties went just 2-for-13 (.154) against his off-speed weapon during the final month of the regular season and throughout the post-season.

Continuing to trust his changeup against left-handed batters will be crucial for Varland as he attempts to sustain that effectiveness this season. However, he also spent the off-season working to incorporate that pitch into his arsenal versus righties, as he told Blue Jays Nation last month, after throwing zero changeups to right-handed batters in ’25.

The plan is to have it prevent opponents from sitting on his four-seamer and knuckle curve, while also providing relief for his below-average slider, which righties hit .375 and slugged .625 against last season, serving as another third-pitch option for those matchups.

When healthy, there’s potential for the back end of the Blue Jays’ bullpen to feature not one, two, three, but four workhorses between Varland, García, Rogers (who leads all major-league relievers with 374 appearances and 378.1 innings since 2021) and Hoffman.

Others will need to step up to ensure those four survive the 162-game marathon, especially with Hoffman, who’s set new career-highs in appearances and innings pitched in each of the previous two seasons. Even so, it’s a drastically improved bullpen picture from a year ago, which, after García landed on the IL, relied heavily upon the likes of Yariel Rodríguez and Brendon Little to assume meaningful, high-leverage roles.

It’s not a perfect unit, and future additions will become necessary leading up to the Aug. 3 trade deadline. But this is an excellent foundation to build around, starting with Varland — who isn’t free-agent eligible until 2030 — among those leading the charge at the forefront of Toronto’s upgraded bullpen.