Diamondbacks 2022 Player Reviews: Daulton Varsho

2022 Review

Daulton Varsho was born into baseball. The son of former major league outfielder Gary Varsho, Daulton was named after his father's teammate and close friend Darren Daulton. A family of athletes, Varsho's two older sisters were both college athletes and Daulton learned dedication and competitiveness from an early age.

Attending the University of Wisconsin and playing catcher, Varsho crushed the ball while in college, hitting .370 and above 1.000 OPS over his final two seasons. He was taken by the Diamondbacks in the second round, 68th pick overall in the 2017 draft.

Through his first three seasons in the minors he hit at every level, reaching Double-A by 2019 and batting .301 with an .899 OPS at that level. He started the 2020 at the team's alternate site and made his major league debut July 30th, 2020. Varsho was up and down at the plate and struggled behind it on defense. He was up with the club early in 2021 as well, but after slumping was demoted back to AAA. When he came back, from July 20th to the end of the season he hit .295 with an OPS of .886.  He also began his transition to the outfield.

When the 2022 season opened Varsho, entering his age 25 season, earned a spot on the opening day roster as the starting centerfielder. From the start of the year it was evident that he was going to be just fine in the outfield. But like many of his teammates, struggled at the plate during the first month, batting just .197 through April 28th. He did knock four homers, including a game trying solo shot in the bottom of the 9th against the Mets on April 22nd.  

Varsho got very hot over his next 22 games, batting .322/.379/.575, .954 OPS with 10 doubles, four homers, and 12 RBI. Another big highlight game came on May 21st when he hit a game tying RBI single against the Cubs in the 8th inning and then smashed a go ahead two RBI double in the top of the 10th in a D-backs victory. 

With Carson Kelly on the injured list, Varsho moved from the outfield back to catching, sharing duties with Jose Herrera, while also playing DH when not behind the plate. Perhaps related to the challenges of catching, Varsho entered a prolonged slump. From May 26th up until the All Star break on July 17th hit hit just .196 with four homers. He made his hits count however, driving in 24 runs in that 42 game span. 

When Kelly came back from the injured list Varsho moved back to the outfield, shifting most of the time over to right field to allow rookie Alek Thomas to play centerfield. From the all star break on Varsho continued to hit for power, smacking 15 home runs in the second half, which was tied for 8th in the national league with former D-back Paul Goldschmidt. 

Varsho set career highs in homers, RBI, and WAR.  His OPS+ of 109 equates to roughly 9% above league average. While it was a successful season overall at the plate, there are a couple of areas still requiring improvement to complete his development. He had very poor platoon splits, struggling against left hand pitching, failing to hit for either average or power. Just one of his 27 homers came against lefties and his .250 OBP was borderline unplayable. 

The other item that stood out is Varsho's extreme pull percentage. His 54.5% pull rate was the highest among all qualified MLB batters. While pushing for power, Varsho abandoned any semblance of an opposite field approach as his opposite field percentage dropped from 26% to 16%.

One point of note here though is that Varsho may be a big beneficiary of the elimination of infield shifts in 2023. When teams were shifted or in strategic alignment against  Varsho he had a .305 wOBA (Weighted on base average). When teams were in standard infield alignment that number jumped to .347 wOBA. (MLB average wOBA was .310 in 2022)

Defense

No part of Varsho's game shined more than his work in the outfield. Simply put, he developed into an elite defensive outfielder in both center and right field. In an early September  exclusive, Varsho shared with us the details of how became such a good outfielder, who he worked with and the mechanics he focused on. Whether playing in center or right, Varsho delivered highlight reel catches one after another. Utilizing his speed, athleticism, and hard work, Varsho led all major league outfielders in Statcast Runs Prevented (+14) and Outs Above Average. (+16)

Varsho was a finalist at two Gold Glove positions, right field and utility. While he did not take home the hardware in either category, he firmly established himself as one of the best outfield defenders in the game. Notably, his time at catcher appears to be over, at least for the Diamondbacks. Other than an occasional emergency start or strategic substitution late in games, the team signaled it's intentions clearly that they no longer view him as a full time or even backup catching candidate. 

Heart and Hustle Award

Varsho was the Diamondbacks recipient of the Heart and Hustle award. Voted on by former players, the award honors the player who demonstrated a passion for the game of baseball and best embodies the values, spirit and traditions of the game. The D-backs under Manager Torey Lovullo have a lot of players that could win this award. It's a characteristic of this team. Still, it's hard to imagine a player more deserving last year than Varsho. 

2023 Outlook

Varsho has established himself as the starting right fielder for the Diamondbacks. Entering his age 26 season he has attained "super 2" status and thus will be arbitration eligible. Inside the Diamondbacks estimated he will make approximately $2.8 million in 2023. 

With a glut of left handed hitting outfielders rumors have been rampant that one of them may be moved during this off season. While the team has signaled that Corbin Carroll is untouchable, Varsho does not appear to be in that category. Earlier this week we presented the Diamondbacks outfielder trade values. Varsho holds the second highest trade value among Diamondbacks outfielders, but that may make a trade difficult to pull off. It would be considered somewhat of a blockbuster if he were to be moved and certainly the price tag is high. Most pundits seem to think that if an outfielder is traded, it will be one of Alek Thomas or Jake McCarthy. 

Should Varsho remain with the team improvements in his ability to hit left handers and use the whole field could catapult him into being the team's  All Star representative in 2023. At the same time he is quietly emerging as a clubhouse leader. With one more year of success under his belt it's not difficult to see his personality and leadership qualities fully blossom.