Blue Jays, Astros Nearing Swap Of Daulton Varsho, Spencer Arrighetti

The Blue Jays and Astros are close to a trade that’ll send center fielder Daulton Varsho from Toronto to Houston in exchange for righty Spencer Arrighetti, reports Mitch Bannon of The Athletic. The two teams are reviewing the medical records of both players. Varsho, 30, will give Houston the left-handed bat they’ve spent months pursuing. He’s a free agent at season’s end, however, so the ‘Stros could be on the lookout for more left-handed bats in the outfield just a few months from now. In the meantime, they’ll get a productive veteran who’s been one of the top outfield defenders of the past several seasons. Flashy glovework notwithstanding, Varsho is more than just a Gold Glove-caliber defender. He’s sitting on a tepid .243/.307/.375 batting line this season (91 wRC+) but ripped 20 homers in 71 big league games as recently as last season. Dating back to 2021, Varsho is a .230/.297/.425 hitter. That’s league-average production right on the dot, and Varsho is typically a quality presence on the basepaths each season, too. He’s 62-for-78 in career stolen base attempts, including a perfect 9-for-9 this year. Prior to acquiring Varsho, MVP candidate Yordan Alvarez was the only left-handed fixture in Houston’s lineup. The ‘Stros have gotten some lefty plate appearances this year from young outfielders like Joey Loperfido and Zach Cole, as well as journeymen like Taylor Trammell, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Braden Shewmake. Alvarez, Trammell and Loperfido are the only Astros to log more than 100 plate appearances as left-handed hitters, however, and only Alvarez has reached even 200 plate appearances on the year. Houston’s combined 1142 plate appearances from lefties are the fourth-fewest in MLB. Varsho is playing the season on a one-year, $10.75MM contract. As of today, there’s about $3.294MM of that sum yet to be paid out. Per MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, Houston entered the day with a luxury tax payroll of $235,766,794. They’re only about $7.5MM from reaching the tax threshold, which doesn’t give them a lot of breathing room, but does give them enough to shoehorn Varsho into the budget — even if the Jays aren’t paying any of his salary. More to come. View Comments (68)