A lot of oddities here.
Louis Varland is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota. So in that way, he was the perfect fit for the Minnesota Twins.
He's also a star reliever who had five years of club control remaining. That didn't stop the Twins from trading him at the deadline to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays will certainly take a bullpen upgrade like this, but consider Varland a bit confused.
"It kind of blindsided me," Varland told Toronto media after the deal, adding that it "threw (him) for a loop."
Varland made his debut in Toronto on August 1, threw a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout, and touched 99.3 miles per hour on his heater. Blue Jays fans are pumped, for sure.
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USA Today's Bob Nightengale shared more insight into the deal:
"Varland was devastated, leaving Twins players seething and rivals GMs dumfounded as to why the Twins would actually trade a valuable reliever (2.02 ERA, 47 strikeouts in 49 innings) with five years of control. My God, he was born and raised in St. Paul, with his wife and a family coming to virtually every home game. This is the way you treat him?"
Yeah, that about sums it up.
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The Twins traded away 40% of their MLB roster at the deadline. Some of the sell-off made sense.
Varland, though? Not quite as much sense.
But the good news for Varland is this: Now he's in a pennant race. He'll just have to make a new home in Toronto.
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