Varsho providing impressive pop for Blue Jays in limited action

In a season where so much has seemingly gone right for the Toronto Blue Jays, injury luck has forced key outfielder Daulton Varsho to miss significant time.

But hen he's been on the field the production has been more than the Blue Jays could have imagined.

Varsho led the way for the Blue Jays in a 10-4 romp over the despondent Colorado Rockies on Tuesday with two home runs and a career-high six runs batted in.

He also hit the longest home run of his career with a 467-foot moonshot in the top of the sixth inning.

That brought his home run total on the season to 11 in just 28 games, and 18 of his 24 hits on the season have gone for extra bases.

What has been the driving force behind this power explosion for the 29-year-old?

“I think the ‘why’ is because I’m trying to get above fastballs,” Varsho said after Tuesday's game. 

“Then obviously, when the off-speed comes, I’m just clipping them underneath. I’m not trying to do anything different. I’m not trying to hit homers. I’m trying to hit a ground ball right back to the pitcher, to be honest. It’s about being able to be short and quick to the ball and the power will come. I’ve said it from the get-go. If I can just control that, good things are going to happen.”

Varsho made his season debut on April 29 due to extended rehabilitation from off-season shoulder surgery, and was sent back to the Injured List just a month later with a hamstring strain that robbed him of just over two months of action.

New hitting coach David Popkins and his staff have helped a number of lineup regulars return to their productive ways after disappointing campaigns in 2024, and Varsho is no exception.

Varsho's home run rate is sitting at 9.82 at-bats per home run - in a very small sample size - which would rank better than home run king Barry Bonds' career rate of 12.92 at-bats per home run.

That level of production out of Varsho at the plate, whose brilliant defence earned him a Gold Glove a season ago, has given manager John Schneider another tool to help construct the lineup come October.

“We have different looks in our lineup,” Schneider said on Tuesday. “There’s guys who make a ton of contact, guys who can leave the yard and guys who can do both. This was obviously a big night from Varsho, a big night from Vlad. We can do it in a variety of ways, which is really important.”

Toronto looks to complete the series sweep over the Rockies in a matinee on Wednesday.