LAS VEGAS – During the All-Star Game in Philadelphia this past summer, Louis Varland and Cade Smith met in the American League clubhouse and talked, closer to closer.
The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander described himself as “a big fan” of his Cleveland Guardians counterpart, calling the Canadian “just a true competitor” who “looks like a bulldog out there.”
Smith, who, from across the diamond, saw Varland often while he was bouncing between starting and relieving for the Minnesota Twins before his 2025 acquisition by the Blue Jays, said the 28-year-old’s emergence “has been really cool to watch. Obviously his stuff is great. But he’s got (five) pitches and there's a little different usage between right-handed and left-handed (hitters). He's going to come in, he's going to fill up the zone. That's probably one of the most important things coming out of the bullpen. For him to do that with elite stuff is a really big advantage.”
Fitting, then, given their mutual respect, that they ended up 1-2 in the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voting for the inaugural American League Reliever of the Year award, narrowly won by Varland over Smith on Wednesday night.
Varland, who called winning the award “a pretty special moment,” received 16 first-place votes and 146 total points, while Smith garnered seven first-place votes and 133 total points. Bryan Baker of the Tampa Bay Rays, once a Blue Jays farmhand, had six first-place votes and 111 points.
Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease, meanwhile, finished second in AL Cy Young Award voting, well behind unanimous winner Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees.
Acquired at the 2025 trade deadline for outfielder Alan Roden and lefty Kendry Rojas, the Blue Jays locked Varland into a relief role and he quickly became one of manager John Schneider’s most trusted arms, appearing in 15 of the team’s 18 post-season games.
This year, when Jeff Hoffman endured poor results early in the year, Varland took over as closer and collected 35 saves while posting a 1.27 ERA in 78 innings over 71 games, with 97 strikeouts. He said shifting away from the rotation allowed him to skip “playing the cat and mouse game and saving a pitch for later in the outing” and “just throw your best stuff right away and challenge up.”
“I guess over time, I learned how to do that better and better and then evolved into this year.”
Key to that is a tweak to his changeup suggested by Blue Jays pitching coach Graham Johnson, which helped turn the pitching into a weapon against left-handed hitters. He threw it 31 per cent of the time against them, up 20 per cent from 2025, limiting batters to a .123 average and .140 slugging.
Once he came over, Johnson suggested a grip change to “a one-seam with a little bit of a seam-shift, so the movement was there and then the cue of just throwing it like a fastball aligned with the feel of it.”
“I had a whole off-season with it and after having that, I had the confidence and the feel for it, and I brought that into spring training and then into the season,” said Varland. “And that right there was the pitch I've been searching for the past couple years, and finally dialled it down this year and it helped me out a lot.”
For that reason, Johnson, who took over delivering a so-called velo slap to Varland’s back as he left the bullpen to enter games last season, was one of the many people Varland thanked.
“He's given me a lot more than most people realize,” he said. “I credit a lot of my success to him, as well.”
Varland’s success as closer helped stabilize a relief corps that was a Blue Jays strength this season, especially as attrition to the starters made bullpen games a regular part of the rotation.
Supported by Tyler Rogers, the versatile Spencer Miles and Braydon Fisher and lefty Mason Fluharty, who led the majors with 83 appearances, the Blue Jays have a good starting point for the 2027 bullpen, allowing them to explore all ends of the relief market while having it as a definitive third on their priority list.
“We couldn’t be happier for Louis,” said Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins. “The growth we’ve seen since we acquired him has been so impressive. He continues to take on more responsibility and thrive in any situation, including stepping up in a big way as our closer this year. The impact he had on our bullpen was significant, but just as important was the teammate, competitiveness, preparation and selflessness he brought to our team every day. He earned the trust of everyone around him, and this is incredibly well-deserved recognition.”
Cease, who also was a Cy Young runner-up in 2022, tied Schlittler for second in the AL with 239 strikeouts during a dominant season in which he posted a 2.40 ERA in 169 innings over 29 starts. The AL’s all-star game starter finished the season on the injured list with shoulder fatigue, allowing Schlittler, the front-runner for the award while putting up a 1.95 ERA in 193.2 innings over 33 starts, to really separate in the race.
Atkins said physically, Cease “is in a great spot,” now with his shoulder, as the IL stint “wasn't something that he felt necessarily strongly about needing or doing. Just felt like there wasn't much downside to him having a little bit of focus and attention on it.”
