Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Pictures
I’m nonetheless coming down from the excessive of what I feel we are able to all agree was a terrific World Collection. It’ll go down as among the best of the twenty first century; it had star energy, stunning twists, unlikely heroes, the entire 9 yards. The blokes who plotted out the ludicrously dramatic soccer depicted in Friday Night time Lights are in all probability like, “Guys, cool it, you’re pouring it on too thick.”
The final sport and a half particularly, I used to be genuinely wired over the end result, which isn’t one thing that normally occurs when I’ve neither a partisan canine within the battle nor the duty to write down off the sport.
A pair days out, I discover myself experiencing an emotion I didn’t count on: I’m going to overlook this Blue Jays crew. They have been a blast to observe. I don’t assume I’ve ever seen a star participant put his crew on his again the way in which Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did this October. Not in baseball, at the very least, and positively not a place participant. I lived and died with every pained stagger taken by Bo Bichette and George Springer. Having seen Trey Yesavage pitch in school, his breakout took me much less unexpectedly than most, however it was no much less thrilling because of this.
Even the Jays’ detrimentally aggressive baserunning — which was their final undoing — solely made me like them extra. Baseball is so optimized nowadays, so steadily homeworked into predictability, that it’s laborious to not admire a crew that’s unafraid to threat all of it.
Nobody must be shocked that Sam Miller was capable of describe the scenario extra incisively and succinctly than I’ve.
If I ever write up an all-time Performed Their Asses Off leaderboard, the 2025 Blue Jays might be method up towards the highest, and possibly the pull quote.
—Sam Miller (@sammillerbb.bsky.social) November 1, 2025 at 11:07 PM
In case you may’t inform, I really like a charismatic runner-up, and I fear that as time passes, historical past will solely bear in mind a lot of what made these Blue Jays so compelling. So I wish to plant a historic marker for a man who exemplified what I discovered so compelling about them: Daulton Varsho.
Varsho wasn’t one in every of Toronto’s largest offensive contributors. He had some memorable contributions, to make sure. He went 4-for-5 with two dingers within the ALDS clincher in opposition to the Yankees, and it was his fourth-inning dwelling run in Sport 1 of the World Collection that broke Blake Snell’s air of invincibility and introduced that the underdog Blue Jays wouldn’t go quietly.
However general, Varsho posted a wRC+ of 97, and among the many 65 gamers who batted at the very least 20 occasions throughout this postseason, he was 59th in WPA. It didn’t assist that he went 0-for-9 throughout Video games 6 and seven of the World Collection. Actually, it was his sedate grounder to second with the bases loaded within the ninth inning of Sport 7 that led to 2 days (and counting) of second-guessing Isiah Kiner-Worry’s baserunning selections.
You bear in mind, the one the place Miguel Rojas nearly fell over whereas fielding the ball with the World Collection-winning run on third, resulting in this unimaginable “Oh, crap” face.
Nonetheless, I’ll give Varsho one of many highest compliments I will pay an athlete: He was a complete pest. A menace. I don’t wish to play up the grinder stereotype an excessive amount of for the son of a former huge league participant and coach, who’s named after a catcher and who himself got here up as a mid-major school catching prospect earlier than reworking right into a Gold Glove outfielder… however you get the image.
The Dodgers kicked the crap out of Milwaukee within the NLCS, however there have been moments wherein the Brewers might’ve seized the initiative. Particularly, by letting a command-agnostic Dodger pitcher plunk them. Brewers second baseman Brice Turang discovered himself within the uncommon place of getting to account for not carrying a Blake Treinen providing in Sport 1 of the NLCS, when doing so would’ve pressured within the tying run.
No downside for Varsho, who received hit by just one pitch in 271 regular-season plate appearances in 2025. He received plunked twice in seven World Collection video games, together with a Sport 1 physique shot from Snell that chased the two-time Cy Younger winner and set the stage for a nine-run sixth inning.
It’s Canada. We received ice.
But it surely’s on protection the place Varsho stood out most. Varsho made 49 putouts this postseason, 11 greater than another outfielder. Admittedly, that’s the results of alternative; as a result of the Blue Jays performed two seven-game collection, and the Dodgers shook up their outfield midstream, Varsho performed 21 extra innings than another outfielder. Julio Rodríguez made 38 putouts in 12 video games; Pete Crow-Armstrong made 24 in simply eight video games.
However a few of Varsho’s have been fairly rad. I really like commemorating the top of the season with a ranked listing, so listed here are the six finest defensive actions of the postseason for Varsho.
No. 6: Hop, Skip, and a Leap
Varsho didn’t rob any dwelling runs this postseason. Not that you simply’d count on him to take action at 5-foot-8. However this catch is a good illustration of Varsho’s capability to learn the ball off the bat. Some outfielders get their vary from sheer foot pace, and/or chase it down at a continuing closing fee. Varsho reacts to the crack of the bat and scampers as quick as his little legs will go within the route the ball is hit, slowing down solely as he’s arriving at his eventual vacation spot.
No. 5: The Easy Operator
Varsho was comparatively quiet defensively in Toronto’s first two rounds, however he was far and wide within the World Collection. He made 5 putouts in Sport 3 — all within the eighth inning or later — after which three extra within the first 5 innings of Sport 5, then this sliding seize of a sinking Will Smith liner, then one other catch later within the inning. You begin to perceive how one would get sick of seeing this man.
No. 4: Had It All of the Means
This can be a nice learn and an amazing break at a ball hit in entrance of him; line drives like this will generally be difficult to guage. Varsho might’ve gone to this ball extra instantly and caught it with two arms on the lifeless run. As a substitute, he performed it one-handed with an insouciant little slide on the finish.
No. 3: There, however for Taller Turf, Go I
That is probably the most spectacular catch of Varsho’s by far. He plucked the ball from the air only a couple inches from the bottom, if that. Not a second to spare. Nonetheless, I’ve to mark it down a spot or two as a result of Varsho made a uncommon unhealthy learn, breaking again on a ball that may in the end find yourself in entrance of him.
No. 2: Going Horizontal in Sport 7
This catch, a flying, diving seize to rob Teoscar Hernandez of successful, seemed on the time prefer it might be decisive. A run scored on the play — Varsho’s throwing shoulder has been in some extent of determined disrepair for greater than a 12 months, however I don’t assume anybody wanting Roberto Clemente might stand up from a susceptible place to throw out a tagging runner on the plate. Had Varsho performed it on a hop, at the very least one run would’ve scored, possibly two, and the Dodgers would’ve had the conga line intact. Had he missed this catch, the ball in all probability would’ve gone a lot of the approach to the wall, leaving Hernández standing on second or third, with the bases in any other case clear and the sport tied with one out.
As a substitute, Guerrero made an equally spectacular diving cease on a Tommy Edman liner to finish the inning and restrict the harm to a run. Craig Calcaterra referred to as it “a crew of future inning,” and he was proper to take action. The Jays had simply bloodied Shohei Ohtani’s nostril half an inning earlier than, and had Varsho and Guerrero not made these two diving stops, the Dodgers might’ve paid them again with curiosity and held a multi-run lead going into the underside of the fourth.
No. 1: The Sport 3 Additional-Inning Quadrilogy
That is really 4 performs in a single, with solely one in every of them being something resembling spectacular out of context, however it actually sums up Varsho’s postseason for me.
Out of the 49 catches Varsho made within the outfield, 15 of them resulted in him placing one or each ft on the warning monitor. That’s 15 occasions the batter received all or a lot of the ball, leaving open the non-trivial chance that when the published modified digital camera angles, we have been going to observe the ball fly into the seats. And as a substitute of getting probably the most impactful play doable, what we received was Varsho trotting over to retire the batter.
This occurred to the Dodgers lots. Freddie Freeman hit 18 fly balls throughout three rounds of the playoffs. Two of them left the yard, two others went for doubles, and Varsho caught 9 of the opposite 14. 5 of these 9, Varsho caught on the warning monitor.
Throughout the marathon Sport 3, that legendary, definitive sport, Varsho tracked down a warning monitor fly ball that got here off the bat at 100 mph or extra 4 innings in a row. Hearken to the group in these movies. He received Freeman to finish the thirteenth with a runner on second.
The very subsequent Dodger hitter was Smith, who was so sure he’d received the sport that he did a Barry Bonds-style bat drop-and-stare combo. Will Smith! Not normally one given to showboating, however he’s not product of stone — each hitter on a significant league roster would pimp a walk-off no-doubter within the World Collection. Fox announcer Joe Davis was actually satisfied that’s what he was calling.
However no, Varsho went proper as much as the wall and plucked the ball out of the air.
Freeman received one other shot with two out within the fifteenth; I don’t assume this ever realistically seemed prefer it was going out, however it completely seemed like a double within the hole.
Two-thirds of the Earth’s floor is roofed by water, and many others., and many others.
Within the sixteenth inning, it was Hernández’s flip once more.
At this level, the Dodgers should’ve suspected that there was a power subject or one thing. It’s Eric Lauerfor God’s sake (with all due respect), how have we not hit one out but?
However each time, it was Varsho robbing them of the triumphant second they’d stayed up all evening for. A minimum of till Freeman lastly pushed one over the fence within the 18th.
If Guerrero dominated the playoffs by power of will, to an extent that’s normally solely doable in basketball, Varsho was the Draymond Inexperienced to Guerrero’s Steph Curry. With much less nut-punching. He was there to gather each stray ball, to battle for each rebound, to make each high-leverage defensive play. 5 years from now, we in all probability could have forgotten all about Varsho’s contributions to the Blue Jays’ excruciating near-miss. However we are able to bear in mind them for now.
