Blue Jays Turn Daulton Varsho Into a New-Look Rotation
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It was definitely a very emotional Monday evening down in Houston, as the hardest part of baseball was on full display hours before the first pitch between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Houston Astros.
In the final hour of the trade deadline, the two front offices shockingly made a deal that sent Blue Jays' center fielder Daulton Varsho into the Astros' dugout, while moving starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti into the visiting team's quarters.
Varsho had been the field general for the Jays for the past handful of years, but with his contract up in the coming months and Toronto not in the playoff race, it makes sense for the Jays to move him, and who they got in return made it a no-brainer.
Arrighetti has shown signs of brilliance on the mound and could be a perfect addition to the end of the rotation for the Blue Jays. Plus, he will not be a free agent until the end of the 2029 season, which is exactly what Toronto's front office was after.
There was the constant dark cloud hanging over the Jays' pitching staff this year, with Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Shane Bieber, and Max Scherzer all on expiring deals, and this will be far from the same situation next season with the team's new additions.
Blue Jays New Rotation in 2027
Injuries dismantled the Jays' pitching staff this season, and it is hard not to get nostalgic about where this ballclub might be right now had the majority of the team not spent significant time on the injured list, including Cody Ponce, who left a hole in the rotation that was impossible to fill.
Ponce went down minutes into his debut this season after an awkward defensive play against the Colorado Rockies led to season-ending knee surgery. However, he will be back, and he will immediately be better than anything that Jays' fans were forced to watch this season.
So, the pitching staff will welcome back Ponce as the Jays will have at least a five-man rotation moving forward, if not six:
- Dylan Cease
- Trey Yesavage
- Cody Ponce
- Jose Soriano
- Spencer Arrighetti
Arrighetti was almost impossible to put runs up on in the first couple of months this season, so the Jays are currently sporting a pair of AL Pitchers of the Month as Arrighetti took the accolade back in March/April, while Cease has braggging rights for July.
The #BlueJays 2027 rotation picture looks a lot clearer this morning than it did last week (* = new):
— Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) August 4, 2026
Dylan Cease
José Soriano*
Trey Yesavage
Cody Ponce
Spencer Arrighetti*
Bowden Francis
Jake Bloss
Josh Stephen*
Nolan Perry and other prospects
Toronto was both buyers and sellers at this trade deadline, which is why Jose Soriano is now a member of the organization. He won't be a free agent until the conclusion of the 2026 season. Soriano will complement this rotation, and the team's ace Dylan Cease, quite nicely.
Pete Walker and skipper John Schneider could easily decide to make this a six-man rotation as the emergence of Spencer Miles has shaken up all of their plans. Miles' stuff is nasty and he hovers in the upper 90's with his fastball.
It might be difficult to see a key piece of the 2025 run now wearing orange and white, but the Blue Jays retained another arm to the pitching staff and have solidified their future in a big way.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.