Louis Varland is a 28-year-old, right-handed reliever. He was a 15th round draft pick by the Twins, in 2019.
Louis has one option year left. He will likely be arbitration eligible after this season (Super 2) and he would be free agent eligible after the 2030 season. He could be a Blue Jay for a long time
He made it to the majors with the Twins in 2022, making 5 starts, with a 3.81 ERA. In 2023, he pitched in 17 games, 10 starts with a 4.63 ERA. Then, in 2024, 16 more games, 7 starts, with a 7.61 ERA.
We traded Alan Roden and Kendry Rojas to the Twins to get Varland and Ty France. Roden played in 12 games for the Twins with a .158/.200/.263 average. Rojas finished last year in Triple-A St. Paul, with a 6.59 ERA in 8 games, 23 walks and 28 strikeouts in 27.1 innings.
Last year, he became a full-time reliever, pitching in 74 games, 1 start (as the opener). with a 2.97 ERA and 22 holds. Batters hit .244/.304/.383 against him. He doesn’t have much for left/right splits, against right-handed batters he had a .662 OPS, .716 vs left-handed batters.
And, of course, he pitched a lot in the playoffs. He threw in 15 of our 18 playoff games. I’m sure he warmed up at least once in the other three. Louis had a 3.94 ERA with 17 strikeouts, 3 walks and 4 home runs, in the 16 innings. Once you get your manager’s confidence, he’s going to use you until your arms falls off in the playoffs.
He throws a lot of pitches, for a reliever. A Four Seamer (45.3% of the time, averaging 98.1 mph), a Knuckle curve (37.4%), a Slider (7.1%) Sinker (5.5%) and Changeup (4.6%). If I could throw a ball 98 mph, I don’t think I’d do anything else. The slider got hit hard, .677 slugging average against.
Baseball Savant tells us that Varland was very good in:
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Fastball Velocity: 95th percentile.
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Chase %: 86th percentile.
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Strikeout %: 65th percentile.
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Groundball %: 90th percentile.
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Extension: 92nd percentile.
But he wasn’t good at:
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Hard Hit %: 23rd percentile.
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Barrell %: 36th percentile.
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Average Exit velocity: 26th percentile.
Steamer thinks he’ll pitch in 67 games, 67 innings, with a 3.38 ERA.
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