Toronto Blue Jays Trade For Daulton Varsho

The Toronto Blue Jays have traded Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Gabriel Moreno for Daulton Varsho of the Arizona Diamondbacks. This trade interests me because Varsho is a known quality utility outfielder and catcher. The trade seems like a no-brainer for the Blue Jays and good trade on the part of the Diamondbacks. Let’s see what Varsho has to offer the Blue Jays who already have a deep catching position. My guess is Varsho will be in the outfield most of the time.

Daulton Varsho is a catcher and outfielder with 3 years of MLB experience. He bats left and throws right. Varsho has spent all of his career til this point with the Diamondbacks. Depending on what position you judge his hitting stats from, he’s either a great hitting catcher or an adequate hitting outfielder. Right now, fangraphs projects Varsho as the starting leftfielder. 

Varsho hitting sixth in what most people consider a loaded Blue Jays lineup is quite the compliment. But it’s somewhat deserved given what Varsho showed over his career especially in 2022 where he came into his own. It’s important to remember that Varsho has utility on defense as well which I think makes him even more valuable despite being just above average in hitting league wide. Let’s look at the stats: 

In 2022, Varsho played the most games of his career and put up the best numbers of his career. To his credit, there aren’t many catchers hitting like him and one of the few that is better than him is on his team now, in Alejandro Kirk. But as a left fielder, his numbers are good enough, particularly his on base percentage and his stolen base count. In terms of comparison to the league averages, Varsho’s homer rate is about 1 percent more than league average. He strikes out about 2 percent more than league average. Meanwhile his walk rate is basically league average. I think the Blue Jays got a steal for this trade. 

The two guys that the Blue Jays traded to the Diamondbacks are Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Gabriel Moreno. Moreno projects to be a backup catcher to second year stud Carson Kelly. I believe Moreno was just thrown in piece because the Diamondbacks did lose a backup catcher in Varsho. Moreno only has 25 Major Leage games under his belt, so his 2022 stats aren’t really representative. Here’s what baseball reference projects him to do in 2023:

I think it’s a fair projection if he can get anywhere close to these projections then its a win for the Diamondbacks. The bigger haul in the trade was Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Gurriel has 5 years of MLB experience. He bats and throws right. Just like Varsho, up until this trade he was only on the Blue Jays. I like that Gurriel is a utility guy who can play outfield, shortstop and second base. But most importantly, he’s been a consistently good hitter throughout his career: 

You really can’t hate anything about his game. He’s an above average career hitter. Although his power numbers aren’t overwhelming. But despite that Gurriel gets on base and gets hits consistently. Right now, fangraphs projects Gurriel Jr as the starting left fielder for the Diamondbacks. Overall I think the Diamondbacks will be happy with Gurriel just as the Blue Jays with Varsho. 

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Thanks to Baseball Reference and Fangraphs for the charts and statistics!