I have yet to come down from the high of what we all agree was a wonderful World Series. It will go down as one of the best works of the 21st century; it has star power, shocking twists, unlikely heroes, the whole nine yards. Those who orchestrated the absurdly dramatic football depicted in the film friday night lights Maybe say, “Guys, calm down, you’re pouring it too thick.”
Especially the last game and a half, I was really stressed about the outcome, which doesn’t usually happen when I have neither a partisan dog to fight nor an obligation to write off the game.
A few days later, I found myself experiencing an unexpected emotion: I was going to miss this Blue Jays team. Their performance was brilliant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a star player put his team on his back like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did this October. At least not in baseball, and certainly not as a position player. I lived and died with every painful stumble of Beau Bichette and George Springer. After watching Trey Yesavage play in college, his breakout didn’t surprise me as much as most, but the results were no less exciting.
Even the Jayhawks’ aggressive baserunning — which was their ultimate downfall — only made me like them more. Today, baseball is so optimized for predictability that it’s hard not to admire a team that takes no chances.
No one should be surprised that Sam Miller is able to describe this situation more deeply and succinctly than I can.
If I were to write an all-time “hustle” rankings, the 2025 Blue Jays would be far ahead and maybe even in the lead.
— Sam Miller (@sammillerbb.bsky.social) November 1, 2025 at 11:07 pm
If you couldn’t tell, I love a charismatic runner-up, and I worry that over time, history will only remember so much of what made these Blue Jays so compelling. So I wanted to set a historical marker for a man who stood out to me as so compelling: Daulton Varsho.
Varsheu hasn’t been one of Toronto’s biggest offensive contributors. To be sure, he made some memorable contributions. He went 4-for-5 with two homers in the ALDS decider against the Yankees, and it was his fourth-inning homer in Game 1 of the World Series that broke Blake Snell’s invincible momentum and announced that the underdog Blue Jays were not going to go quietly.
But overall, Varsho has a 97 wRC+ and ranks 59th in WPA among 65 players with at least 20 at-bats in the postseason. It didn’t help that he went 0-for-9 in Games 6 and 7 of the World Series. In fact, it was his solid grounder to second with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Game 7 that led to two days (and counting) of second-guessing Isaiah Keener-Falefa’s base-running decision.
You remember, Miguel Rojas almost fell during his third World Series win, resulting in this incredible “oh, crap” face.
Still, I’m going to give Vasiu one of the highest compliments I can give an athlete: He’s a pest. A threat. I don’t want to overplay the grinder stereotype for a former major leaguer and coach’s son named after a catcher who himself was a mid-major college catching prospect before converting into a Gold Glove outfielder…but you get the point.
The Dodgers beat Milwaukee in the NLCS, but there were times when the Brewers could have taken the initiative. Specifically, letting a Dodger pitcher who had nothing to do with command knock them out. Brewers second baseman Brice Turang finds himself in the unusual position of having to take responsibility for not wearing Blake Treinen in Game 1 of the NLCS, and doing so would have forced the team to tie the game.
That’s no problem for Varsho, who was hit just once in 271 regular season games in 2025. He was hit twice in seven World Series games, including a body shot by Snell in Game 1 that chased down the two-time Cy Young winner and set up a nine-run sixth inning.
This is Canada. We have ice.
But what stands out the most about Varsch is his defense. Washoe has 49 saves this postseason, 11 more than any other outfielder. Granted, it was a result of chance; because the Blue Jays played two seven-game series and the Dodgers changed outfielders midway through, Valshaw played 21 more innings than any other outfielder. Julio Rodriguez hit the ball 38 times in 12 games; Pete Crow-Armstrong scored 24 points in just 8 games.
But some of Varsho’s work is quite wonderful. I like to mark the end of the season with rankings, so here are Varsho’s six best defensive plays of the postseason.
Type 6: Jump, jump and jump
Walthew hasn’t snared any home runs this postseason. Not that you’d expect him to do that at 5-foot-8. But this catch is a great example of Vasiu’s ability to read the ball quickly. Some outfielders gain range through sheer foot speed, and/or chase it with a constant approach velocity. Wasiu reacted to the snap of the bat and ran as fast as his shins could in the direction of the hit, only slowing down when he reached his final destination.
No. 5: Smooth Operator
Wasiu was relatively quiet defensively through Toronto’s first two games, but he turned in a stellar performance in the World Series. He threw five shutouts in Game 3 — all in the eighth inning or later — and then three more in the first five innings of Game 5, then caught a liner off a sinking Will Smith on a slide, then caught another later in the inning. You begin to understand that one would be bored by seeing this person.
Fourth: Have a good journey
It’s a great read and a great breakaway hit with the ball in front of him; line drives like this can be hard to call sometimes. Wasiu could have made more direct contact with the ball and caught it with two hands in the blind spot. Instead, he played with one hand, gliding nonchalantly for a short bit at the end.
Third: Yes, but for higher turf, I’ll go
It was Varsho’s most spectacular catch yet. If so, he plucked the ball out of the air just inches from the ground. Not a second to spare. Still, I had to chalk it up a spot or two because Wasiu made a rare misread and returned a ball that would eventually come to him.
Second: Lateral offense in Game 7
The catch, a leaping diving steal that robbed Teoscar Hernandez of a bat, seemed decisive given the timing. Scores in the Game – Vasiu’s throwing shoulder has been in some serious state of disrepair for over a year, but I don’t think anyone other than Roberto Clemente has been able to get up from a prone position and throw out a runner at the plate. If Washoe had played it on the jump, at least a run would have been scored, maybe two, and the Dodgers’ conga line would have been intact. If he had missed this catch, the ball would have gone mostly to the wall, leaving Hernandez on second or third, or the bases would have been clear and the game tied with one out.
Instead, Guerrero made an equally brilliant diving stop on a Tommy Edman liner to end the inning and limit the damage to the runs. Craig Calcatra calls it the “Team of Destiny,” and he’s right. The Jays had just made Shohei Ohtani’s nose bleed a half-inning earlier, and had Valciu and Guerrero not made those two diving stops, the Dodgers could have paid them back with interest and maintained a multi-run lead heading into the bottom of the fourth quarter.
First place: Game 3 overtime tetralogy
It was actually four games rolled into one, only one of which was taken out of context, but it really summed up Varsho’s postseason for me.
Varsho took 49 catches in the outfield, 15 of which resulted in him putting one or both feet on the warning track. That’s 15 times where a batter got all or most of the ball, which leaves one significant possibility: When the broadcast changes the camera angle, we’ll see the ball fly into the seats. Instead of getting as impactful a play as possible, we had Varshaw trotting over to retire the batsmen.
This has happened to the Dodgers many times. Freddie Freeman hit 18 fly balls in three playoff games. Two of them left the yard, the other two went to play doubles, and Varsch caught nine of the other fourteen. Walsch caught five of those nine on the warning track.
In the marathon Game 3, that legendary decisive game, Washoe hit four straight innings of warning track fly balls at 100 mph or more off his bat. Listen to the crowd sounds in these videos. He got Freeman to second to end the 13th inning.
The Dodgers’ next hitter was Smith, who was so sure he was going to win the game that he did a Barry Bonds-esque bat drop and stare combo. Will Smith! He’s not usually a show-off guy, but he’s not made of stone either — every hitter on the major league roster would pimp out a no-brainer in the World Series. Fox announcer Joe Davis is certainly convinced that’s what he said.
But no, Varsch went straight to the wall and plucked the ball out of the air.
Freeman struck again in the 15th with two outs; I don’t think it actually looked like it was going to be an out, but it definitely looked like a double in the gap.
Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, and so on.
In the 16th round, it was Hernandez’s turn again.
At this point, the Dodgers must have suspected that there was such a thing as a force field. This is Eric Lauer, and for God’s sake (IMHO), how come we haven’t hit one yet?
But every time, it was Wasiu who deprived them of their sleepless moment of victory. At least that was the case until Freeman finally pushed one over the fence on the 18th.
If Guerrero dominated the playoffs through sheer force of will, something usually only possible in basketball, then Varshaw was Guerrero’s Draymond Green to Steph Curry. Reduce nut punching. He’s there to collect every stray ball, fight for every rebound, and make every high-leverage defense. Five years from now, we may have forgotten Wasiu’s contribution to the Blue Jays’ agonizing near miss. But we can remember them now.
