Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images
Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho is going viral on Wednesday after he turned what appeared to be a relatively routine play into possibly the catch of the year on Tuesday night.
In the top of the fourth inning of the Blue Jays’ game against the Red Sox at the Skydome, Boston leadoff hitter Jarren Duran hit a deep fly ball to the warning track in center field. Daulton Varsho, playing in his first game of the season after missing the first 28 games rehabbing a rotator cuff injury in his right shoulder, ran towards the wall in what should have been the kind of play baseball fans have seen thousands of times.
And then he tripped. And he rolled. And his back was facing the ball. And he made the catch. What?! You really have to see it to believe it.
HOW— pic.twitter.com/ianiIVKdWe
— MLB (@MLB) April 30, 2025
“I just stuck my glove out and somehow it went in,” MLB.com reports Varsho said after Toronto’s 10-2 loss to Boston Tuesday night. “It was probably a really high percent probability of a catch and I made it look really hard.”
He added that when he tripped, he “said a profanity word, but then I was like, ‘Okay, where’s the ball?’”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider told the media after the game, “I thought it was going off the batter’s eye, then when you see Varsho fall, you immediately say, ‘Don’t fall on your shoulder.’ Then, you watch him catch it and you go, ‘Man, you’re really good.’ That’s not exactly what I said in the dugout. I know this is live right now and I’m trying to be nice. But that was really cool. You just shake your head.”
Daulton Varsho, who earned his first Gold Glove last season, was actually drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017 as a catcher. It wasn’t until August of 2019 that he began playing some center field. He was still catching though as recently as 2021 and caught Tyler Gilbert’s no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in August of that year.
He does have a bit of a pedigree though. His dad is Gary Varsho, who played eight seasons in MLB with the Cubs, Pirates, Reds and Phillies. In fact, Varsho is named Daulton after his dad’s former teammate with the Phillies Darren Daulton.