If he keeps hitting, does Daulton Varsho become one of baseball's best outfielders?

To say that Daulton Varsho has had a tumultuous tenure in his almost two full seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays is an understatement. The talented outfielder has been the poster boy for fans' distaste of the front office's roster construction ever since the trade that brought him to Toronto.

He was brought here to play defense and offer some pop and speed in the lineup. The defense has never been in question. Goodness, it seems like he makes a highlight-reel catch at least once a week, and the rest of the time he makes tough catches look easy. He led all outfielders with 29 DRS last season and is leading the pack again this year with 27 DRS, well ahead of Jarren Duran's second-best 21 DRS for the Boston Red Sox.

Unfortunately for Varsho, for the Blue Jays and for fans, the talented outfielder struggled immensely at the plate in 2023, hitting just .220 with a .674 OPS, but still managed 20 home runs and 16 stolen bases in 158 games. Sadly, it somewhat overshadowed his incredible defense.

But as the hour grows late in this lost Blue Jays season, it looks like the 28-year-old might finally be finding his groove at the plate.

If he keeps hitting, does Daulton Varsho become one of baseball's best outfielders?

Varsho's overall numbers this season don't look great, and look eerily similar to last season. He's batting .216/.295/.414 with 18 home runs and 10 steals in 132 games. He has never been a high-batting average guy. His career-best .246 average came in 315 plate appearances in 2021. But in 2022, his first full MLB season, he hit 27 home runs with a .235 average.

What if he's able to rediscover that player, the one that the Blue Jays traded for? Is that enough, combined with his elite outfield defense, to make Varsho one of the best outfielders in the game?

It looks like maybe, just maybe, he's coming around into that player.

Varsho put together his best month as a Blue Jay in August — coincidentally, when he took over full-time center field duties. He hit .281/.361/.469 with four home runs, four doubles and a triple, leading to 10 RBI and 18 runs scored and a 138 wRC+. His .830 OPS was just higher than the .824 mark he posted through March and April, while his .361 on-base percentage was the highest mark he has posted in Toronto.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider isn't shy about singing Varsho's praises whenever he gets the chance, as he did recently after the Blue Jays' 10-9 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, according to MLB.com's Keegan Matheson.

“He’s such a dynamic player who just gets overlooked and underrated,” Schneider said of Varsho, per Matheson. “You look up at the end of the year and he’s just a really, really good player.”

He's actually the Blue Jays' second-best player, if you're into advanced all-encompassing stats like WAR. Varsho's 3.3 fWAR this season ranks him ninth among all MLB outfielders, while on his own team, he's behind only Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s 5.0 fWAR. But the two players have gone about compiling their wins above replacement value in wildly different ways — Varsho mostly with his glove, and Guerrero all with his bat.

We have only seen flashes of the player that Varsho can be over his first two seasons in Toronto. With the elite defense a guarantee, would putting together a 25-home run, 20-stolen base season be enough to catapult him into another tier? If he finally figures it out at the plate for a full season in 2025 that could be a possibility and should get him mentioned as one of the top outfielders in the game.

Even though to some folks, like his manager, he already is.