Louis

Varland

Varland took the loss on Tuesday night when he gave up a three-run home run to Aaron Judge in relief of Shane Bieber. Varland allowed two runs on two hits in his one inning, but he struck out two, and the pitch Aaron Judge hit out was a 100 mph fastball on the inside corner. Sometimes, you tip your hat to the batter. Varland had a 2.97 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and 75/22 K/BB ratio in 72 2/3 innings out of the bullpen this season. However, he was far more effective with the Twins prior to the deadline. With the Blue Jays using a bullpen game in Game 4, they’ll hope Varland can give them two or three good innings.

Varland has been tremendous for the Blue Jays out of the bullpen, posting a 2.02 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, and 47/13 K/BB ratio in 49 innings (51 appearances). He will provide extra depth to this Blue Jays pen behind a relatively old rotation.

Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith adds that the Blue Jays are sending rookie outfielder Alan Roden to the Twins. Toronto adds another hard-throwing arm to their relief corps and a potential DH upgrade ahead of the trade deadline as Minnesota continues to tear down to the studs.

Minnesota’s offense plated six runs in the eighth inning to eliminate a potential save situation, but the Twins would’ve turned to Louis Varland with Duran sidelined. The hard-throwing 27-year-old stopper is day-to-day heading into Wednesday’s game.

He topped out at 97.5 mph today. Varland hasn’t been officially moved to the bullpen, but his only chance of making the Twins is as a reliever. He’d still probably start if assigned to Triple-A, but especially now that Michael Tonkin appears bound for the IL, Varland has a good shot of claiming a spot.

Varland relieved Wednesday, but that was as a planned bulk guy. This should be more of a traditional middle-inning role for the right-hander. The Twins also made this move last September, and while Varland wasn’t thrilled about it, he had a great final month in the majors, allowing two runs with a 17/1 K/BB ratio in 12 innings. Varland is 0-6 with a 7.62 ERA in seven starts and two relief appearances for the Twins this season.

There was some optimism for Varland coming into this outing given his recent success at Triple-A St. Paul, but things unraveled quickly in this one. He gave up five hits, including a two-run homer to veteran slugger Yandy Díaz and wound up being tagged for a season-high eight runs. He’ll likely be utilized in a long relief role moving forward for Minnesota as they enter the home stretch of the year and it’s difficult to recommend him as a fantasy option moving forward.

Varland is expected to be the bulk guy behind Ronny Henriquez tonight against the Rays. He gave the Twins a quality start in his previous appearance on Aug 14, but he lost to the Royals anyway, leaving him 0-5 with a 6.14 ERA in the majors this season.

It’ll likely be Louie Varland following Henriquez for a bulk relief appearance. Varland has looked extremely sharp in his last couple outings at Triple-A St. Paul and should be officially recalled prior to Wednesday’s contest. There’s some streaming intrigue here for fantasy managers in extremely deep mixed leagues.

Varland has been shipped back to the minors after allowing three runs over six innings on Wednesday in a spot start against the Royals. The 26-year-old righty hasn’t been able to break through at the highest level with Minnesota, but figures to continue getting chances for now.