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Instant Reaction: Daulton Varsho hits two home runs in Blue Jays’ 6-1 victory over Twins
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Photo credit: © Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Mar 13, 2026, 16:30 EDTUpdated: Mar 13, 2026, 17:54 EDT
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This is Daulton Varsho’s team.
On Friday afternoon, the Toronto Blue Jays hosted the Minnesota Twins in Dunedin, defeating the American League Central team 6-1 to move to 8-10-2 this Spring Training. Let’s take a look at what happened in this one.
After a scoreless top of the first, the Blue Jays came up to bat for the first time in the bottom half of the inning. George Springer drew a lead-off walk, then up stepped Daulton Varsho. He hit a homer that came 104.9 mph off the bat and went a distance of 395 feet, his second home run of the spring.
The Twins cut the lead in half in the top of the fourth, as former Blue Jay Alan Roden hit an RBI single to score former Blue Jay Gio Urshela. But that was no problem, as Varsho stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth with runners on first and second. In a repeat of the first inning, he went deep thanks to a 100.3 mph exit velocity.
By the bottom of the seventh, the game had all but been won by the Blue Jays, but Eloy Jiménez made no doubt about it with his second home run of the spring. His homer had an exit velocity of 105.1 mph and travelled a distance of 393 feet.

Takeaways…

I have two main takeaways from this game: First off, the Blue Jays have to extend Daulton Varsho before the season begins. His defence alone makes him one of the best centre fielders in the league, but if he can hit like he did in 2025 (he hit 20 home runs in 271 plate appearances) and he can remain healthy, we’re talking about a 6 fWAR player here. He’s batting .452 with a 1.420 OPS, but what is so interesting is that he’s only struck out once this spring.
My other main takeaway is that Eloy Jiménez has played well enough to make the Opening Day roster. How does this work? I’m not so sure, but the ceiling of his bat is far too hard to ignore. On top of batting .303 with a .937 OPS, Jiménez has an average exit velocity of 91.7 mph with 14 hard hit balls on 25 balls in play. That’s a 56% hard-hit percentage, which would be ninth in Major League Baseball last season.
On top of his two home runs, Varsho had a single, making up half of the Blue Jays’ total hits from this game. Addison Barger ripped a single and prospect Sean Keys also hit a single. George Springer and Carlos Mendoza drew the two walks.
Moving to the pitching side of things, command eluded Cody Ponce, who walked four batters and struck out two in two + scoreless innings. Spencer Miles gave up the lone run against the Twins, while Brendon Little struck out a batter in his inning of work. Little’s maximum velocity of 98.4 mph was a game-high, generating six whiffs in the inning he pitched.
Joe Mantiply was in a jam, but got out of it unscathed, finishing with the exact same line as Little (a walk, a hit, and a strikeout) in his inning of work. Connor Seabold had a strong outing, striking out the side, while Javen Coleman still has a goose egg for an ERA, going two innings with two walks and a strikeout. 
The Blue Jays return to action on Saturday, as Max Scherzer gets the ball against his former team, the Detroit Tigers. That game is in Dunedin with the usual start time of 1:07 PM ET. Tarik Skubal starts for the Tigers.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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