Welcome back to “What’s Happening On This Baseball Card?” where Pitcher List asks major-leaguers to tell the story behind the action that photographers capture inside the frame of an iconic-looking baseball trading card.
This time we examine card No. 43 from the Topps 2024 set, which depicts a leaping, one-handed catch at the fence made by Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho to rob Carlos Correa of a hit May 28, 2023.
Varsho won a Gold Glove in the American League in 2024 for making plays that looked like this. A funny thing about this one: Topps made a beautiful card of Varsho using a moment that still gives him mixed feelings two years later. Varsho was pleased enough to make the catch, battling the wind and the atypical ballpark background, but the Minnesota Twins and Target Field were kind of wearing him out. The game before, the Twins hit two home runs (one apiece by Willi Castro and Matt Wallner) that Varsho himself knocked over the fence with his glove.
Two in the same game!
With the Blue Jays stopping in Kansas City for a late-season series against the Royals this past September, Varsho and some teammates took a moment tell Pitcher List how much they appreciate the plays he makes in the outfield, along with his effort in other moments that don’t quite work out as expected. The Jays have come to depend on Varsho, whose defense (and improved hitting) are big reasons they’ve reached the World Series.
What’s happening on Varsho’s baseball card was a little building block, eventually, to an AL pennant.
“Oh, yeah,” Varsho said. “Every time I see this card, I think: ‘Oh, yeah. That series. That’s great.’ Nah, it was just one of the series where, like, you try, and you try to do everything you can for a pitcher, and sometimes it’s not successful.
“And then: third time’s the charm.”
Varsho’s catch came in the bottom of the eighth inning with the Blue Jays protecting a three-run lead. Correa hit a drive against right-hander Erik Swanson that went 106.8 mph off the bat, with Statcast estimating a 410-foot distance, a .970 expected batting average, and a home-run outcome in 20 different MLB parks.
But the wind had started to gust from center and appeared to help push the ball toward the field. Varsho leaped and lightly banged his back into the center-field fence to make the out.
“And this time, he makes the catch,” Twins broadcaster Dick Bremer said, referring the home runs Varsho missed the day before.
Varsho said he was able to get over his frustrations from missing the other long flies long before the Jays took the field the next day. But the lesson still served as a source of motivation and focus.
“That stadium is really tough to see in Minnesota,” Varsho said. “With the tan (limestone), you don’t always see the ball really well off the bat. It’s just one of those places where, if you’re playing the outfield, it’s a little tougher to see — especially in the daytime.”
Among the Statcast numbers was the one for catch probability: 95%. As happens frequently, it clashes with other data like the .970 expected batting average. Perhaps the Catch Probability Review Board (which might be a real body) can knock off 10%.
For the sake of full transparency: While he vividly recalls the play from his own card, along with what led up to it, Varsho’s teammates don’t really remember this catch in particular. Right-hander Chris Bassitt was on the mound for one of the home-run balls Varsho knocked over the fence. But, no, the catch on the card didn’t register.
“There’ve been too many games,” Bassitt said with a laugh.
Still, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen a lot. Bassitt also has been out there for the umpteen ones Varsho caught.
“He’s the apex of our sport, that kind of thing, when it comes to the outfield position,” Bassitt said. “The plays that he’s able to make are plays that pretty much no one else can so when he does pull them off, it’s like: ‘Holy crap, right?’ You’re almost used to greatness in that aspect of it. You don’t see the catches that he makes around the league (from other players). Like Byron Buxton, I would say he was one of the few other guys that can pull it off things like that. But you’ve got to be extremely athletic.”
Varsho’s most iconic catch, one so unusual that teammates likely won’t ever forget it, doesn’t have a trading card companion — yet. It would be worthy.
Recovered from shoulder surgery, fresh off the injured list April 29 and making his 2025 debut, Varsho creatively made it an extra-special occasion. Ranging back on a Jarren Duran fly ball to center in the top of the fourth inning, Varsho tripped on a seam in the artificial turf at Rogers Centre, fell and tumbled with his back to the infield, put his left foot down and his right knee on the turf, and reached out behind his back to make the grab about three feet off the ground.
Varsho told reporters in Toronto that he let slip “a profanity word” after he tripped on the seam and fell, but he collected himself mentally as quickly he did physically.
“In that moment, when you fall over,” Varsho said, “you’re like: ‘Oh my gosh, Daulton, what are you doing?’ But it’s one of those things where: Do you make the play anyway? It turns out to be a really great play, even though it’s a very, very average play.”
Statcast measured it as 95% catch probability. Bassitt absolutely remembers that one anyway.
“Very non-Daulton like,” Bassitt said. “Usually he doesn’t make that play look really hard.”
As the Jays’ DH, George Springer saw it from the dugout.
“He made that catch,” Springer said, “and we were all, like, ‘C’mon, Daulton, bro.’ Daulton can do things that you have to watch to understand. Other guys just can’t do it. That’s why he is who he is. I like to think I’ve made some nice plays out there, but nothing like that. A walk in the park by comparison.”
Springer added that Varsho’s true value on defense comes from the myriad other plays he makes because of proper jumps and effective route running.
“I think he’s the best defensive outfielder in the game. In my opinion,” Springer said. “He’s got a very unique skill set out there. The way that gets jumps, he’s he’s always in the right place. There’s never a ball that gets hit and when it lands, you’re like, ‘Oh, wow. He didn’t catch it.’ That’s a really good sign of a very, very good outfielder.”
His first two full seasons in the majors, spent with Arizona, Varsho ranked better than league average on offense, batting .239/.308/.440 with 38 home runs in his first 907 plate appearances. Varsho slumped in 2023-24 after being traded to the Jays, also having to endure the shoulder injury.
This season Varsho has been on the field only about half the time, but he batted .238 with 20 homers and a .548 slugging percentage in 271 plate appearances during the regular season. At the plate, he finished 15-20% better than the league average player. He was not judged to be a Gold Glove finalist this time around.
A son of former major-leaguer Gary Varsho, and a catcher until the 2022 season, Varsho said his athleticism comes from both parents (his mom is named Kay). And he takes advantage of his time behind the plate to inform how he plays defense in the outfield.
“Catching was a big part of my life,” said Varsho, who famously was named after his dad’s good friend, former major league catcher Darren Daulton.
“I think it actually helps me in the outfield, because you kind of know what the pitchers are trying to do, and kind of understanding swings. I think that’s probably the reason I get really good jumps, and read swings, and understand how and what their guys are trying to get do at the plate. It is a big benefit for me.”
Daulton Varsho with the Blue Jays’ first World Series home run since Joe Carter’s in 1993…
When Darren Daulton, who Varsho was named after, was catching for PHI
Lineage!!!! https://t.co/LOYITlHJiO
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) October 25, 2025
While grateful for the experience of going behind the plate, Varsho said he doesn’t miss the part of catching that yields foul tips and the danger of concussions.
He’s also grateful for anyone who wants to have him sign the 2024 Topps No. 43, even if it also reminds him of two flies that got away.
Photos by David Brown
“I mean, it’s still a good card, a pretty cool card,” Varsho said. “I’ve signed it for people a lot, because it’s for kids a lot of times.”
