Elliott: Varland drywalls Yankee rally with 100 mph pop
Reliever Louie Varland helped the Toronto Blue Jays escape a bases loaded jam and may be the Game 4 starter — if needed.
October 4, 2025
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
How competitive is Toronto Blue Jays reliever Louie Varland?
Competitive enough to sit down at his laptop and write an email, called or write a letter.
And another.
And another.
Varland’s older brother, Gus Varland, was pitching for the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears. Did he plan on following in his brother’s footsteps as a legacy?
Far from it.
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“Louie contacted every team in our Northern Sun Conference asking for a tryout,” said his former coach, the legendary Mark (Lunch) McKenzie from St. Paul, Minn. this week. “He sent emails to all the coaches in the league asking if there was an opportunity for him to come to their schools to pitch for their teams.”
Louie received zero replies.
By now, brother Gus was getting some pre-draft looks and respected people in the state were saying “Hey Lunch ... have you see Gus’ brother Louie?”
So, the Varland family had a meeting in coach McKenzie’s office and the coach asked: “Louie ... what is the deal, emailing all these other schools?”
Louie replied, “I love my brother, but I wanted to pitch against him.”
No problem for problem solver McKenzie. “Louie and Gus are incredibly competitive. I offered Louie $500 more scholarship money than I gave Gus.” Done deal.
It wasn’t as competitive as say Keith Primeau, of the Hartford Whalers, fighting his brother Wayne Primeau, of the Buffalo Sabres, but as mound battles went it was a determined effort to create a match up.
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Minnesota Nice: Good things usually happen when a St. Paul resident puts on a Blue Jay uniform.
Jack Morris, of St. Paul, became the first Jays pitcher to win 20 games in 1992.
Dave Winfield, of St. Paul, became the oldest hitter to knock in more than 100 runs in 1992.
And Paul Molitor, a St. Paul Paulie, earned MVP honours in the 1993 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“Dave and I grew up about six blocks apart and Jack was a couple of miles away,” Molitor reminded us the other day.
Bottom line ...
Winfield _ .239 batting average with two doubles, two homers and six RBIs in 12 games against Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves to win 1992 World Series, Cooperstown induction in 2001.
Morris _ 0-3 record, 7.43 ERA against Oakland and the Braves in four starts as Jays were 1-3, winning 1992 World Series, Cooperstown induction in 2018.
Molitor _ .467 batting average with four doubles, three triples, three homers and 13 RBIs in 12 games against the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies in 1993, Cooperstown induction in 2004.
Now, by no means are we suggesting that Varland is headed for upstate New York down the road, but the spotlight shines fondly on St. Paul natives dressed in blue and white.
Varland could have the chance to have the St. Paul post-season sun shine on him. With starters Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt and José Berríos not on the Blue Jays’ 26-man post-season roster for the American League Division Series, it will likely be Varland in a bullpen game in Game 4.
Unless the Blue Jays sweep, of course. Their last post-season sweep was ... when they swept the 2016 best-of-five ALDS against the Texas Rangers. So, that’s one sweep in 14 post-season series over their 49 seasons.
It will likely be Varland followed by Eric Lauer, a repeat of the combo which helped beat the Boston Red Sox in a must-win game with four games remaining. Yariel Rodríguez, Braydon Fisher, Seranthony Domínguez, Brendon Little and Jeff Hoffman followed Lauer to the mound.
Varland popped up Jarren Duran, retired Trevor Story on a fly ball deep to right and struck out Alex Bregman in the first. He set down Masataka Yoshida on a fly ball to deep left-centre, then struck out Romy Gonzalez and Ceddanne Rafaela.
Six up.
Six down.
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Never mind Game 4: Varland was in action -- in the midst of it all -- with two out and the bases loaded Saturday after Kevin Gausman had walked in a run leaving the bases jammed. His task? Retire Giancarlo Stanton, who has 453 career home runs.
“Luis is a dude now, a strike throwing dude,” McKenzie said a couple of days ago.
Varland threw ball one, then three straight strikes. A knuckle curve at 90 MPH, a fastball at 99 and a humm baby at 100. See ya. In the sixth, he retired Jazz Chisholm, allowed a single to Ryan McMahon and his workday was done. A total of 11 pitches stranding three.
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It all started, comma: To start at the start McKenzie coached the 16U Team USA, won gold and received some publicity.
“Concordia-St. Paul decided to move from NAIA to Division II and gave me a call,” said McKenzie, who like me didn’t go to college and a degree was needed to be hired. Concordia-St. Paul got around that.
“I was interested but I didn’t know how to recruit,” McKenzie said as the team switched conferences. “We had pockets of recruits over the years, like Minnetonka. We had Billy Mauer (Joe Mauer’s brother) and won a conference championship in our fourth year. Then we got some more guys from there.
“We had a guy from Johnston Iowa, he had success. Next thing we had three of four guys from Iowa. One day this little kid walks in my office in 2012 a little tiny guy -- Adam Hildebrandt. He was an all-state soccer player and he says ‘I’d like to stay home and come to your school. Turns out he’s a leader in North St. Paul, so he tells a few of his guys.”
Gus Varland during his days with the Chicago White Sox.
The Gus Varland era: Eventually someone dropped an “ever heard of Gus Varland?” line on McKenzie. And off the coach went to see Gus pitch for his American Legion team.
“He wasn’t big, he was probably 83 MPH and his mechanics were not real good, but he threw strikes, I recruited him hard and we signed him,” said McKenzie, who lost the championship against St. Cloud State.
Pictures of the program’s All-Americans hang in McKenzie’s old office. Gus’ front foot is flying open and his arm is under the ball. Yet he was a strike machine.
Gus went 7-1 in 2018 with a 1.04 ERA, striking out 79 in 60 1/3 innings. He was a 14th round pick of the Oakland Athletics in 2018, signing for $125,000. He made his debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023, pitched the next season with the Milwaukee Brewers and is now on the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster.
The Louie Varland era: In 2017, Louie was 1-0 with a 1.96 ERA in eight games, striking out 12 in 13 innings. The next season he was 5-1 with a 1.41 ERA, fanning 51 in 44 2/3 innings. And in 2019, he was 4-5 with a 3.58 ERA with 68 whiffs in 55 1/3 innings. The Twins gave Varland a $115,000 signing bonus as a 15th rounder in the 2019 draft. He made his debut with the Twins in 2022.
And all the credit goes to: Gus showed up throwing strikes but lacking velocity, while Louie arrived with a light-up-the-gun fastball, but had trouble finding the zone.
Unlike a lot of coaches, McKenzie was quick to pass on the credit to his two pitching coaches: former University of Minnesota Gophers: Jon Gaub, who was drafted by Cleveland and had a cup of tea with the Chicago Cubs and Lunch’s son Marcus McKenzie, who was undrafted and signed with the independent St Paul Saints, later pitching for the 2010 independent Calgary Vipers.
Gaub was a flame-throwing left-handed closer, while Marcus was a Jamie Moyer type starter, who threw 84-86 mph with a great change and command.
“The Varlands did all the work, our coaching staff DID NOT get them drafted or signed. They got themselves drafted and signed,” McKenzie said. “Between the two different abilities and strengths of our pitching coaches, they were able to communicate and assist Gus and Louie with their individual needs.
Former Concordia-St. Paul coach Mark (Lunch) McKenzie
“When Gus got here he was able to clean up his mechanics and that along with his work in the weight room and conditioning, helped him gain velocity while maintaining the great command that he had when he got to Concordia. Louie, on the other hand, came with the ability to throw the ball hard, but he had very marginal command.”
The combination of their vastly different pitching strengths and weaknesses worked well with the different strengths of their two pitching coaches, and in the end they both got what they needed to become better pitchers.
“Once again,” McKenzie said, “they did the work, but they were also extremely coachable.”
McKenzie said Wade Varland, the father, loved the game, saying “the family was blue sheet rockers, both boys worked for their father.” And what exactly is a sheet rocker? “They put up walls,” said Lunch.
Looking up the Google machine we found Varland Drywall in North St. Paul. That would be the place.
The Northern Sun: Coaches from schools that didn’t answer Louie’ email include -- with and the 32 Canadians on their rosters last spring: St. Cloud State University (Wyatt Tweet, Russell, Man.), Bemidji State (Devon Cook, Headingley, Man.), Mary (Archer Blumenschein, Sherwood Park, Alta., Noah Hull, Scarborough, Ont., Thomas Little, Lethbridge, Alta., Kevin Millar, Georgetown, Ont., Jacob Burgess, Dartmouth, NS, Keegan Drinkle, Maple Ridge, BC, Callum Noonan, London, Ont., Grant Pednaud, Sechelt, BC, Derek Riesberry, Burlington, Ont., Jack Thompson Langley, BC, Grayson Frers, Surrey, BC, Carter Shin, Burlington, Jeff Tiw, Burlington, Ryan Facchini Burlington, Hank Griffin, Boucherville, Que., Kalem Haney. Lethbridge, Alta., Riley Pearce, Lethbridge, Jaxon Zanolli, Olds, Alta. and Ben Zehr, Kitchner, Ont.), Minnesota-Crookston (Jonah Norman, Winnipeg, Man.), Minnesota State-Mankato (Braxton Haggith, Glencoe, Ont., Jacob Gajic, Hamilton, Ont.), Minot State (Seungjun Song, Winnipeg, Man.. Boston Bast, Saskatoon, Sask., Toby Foster, St. Albert, Alta., Jacob McLean, Prince George, BC, Kade Pallett, Lethbridge, Alta., Jacob Thompson, North Sannich, BC, Anthony Chatwood, Innisfail, Alta., Jake Orthner (Southey, Sask.), Wayne State (Neb.) (Casey Prychak, Saskatoon, Sask.) Augustana, Minnesota State-Duluth, Minnesota State-Moorhead, Northern State, Sioux Falls, Southwest Minnesota State, Upper Iowa and and Winona State.
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Words of wisdom: McKenzie said Louie still stays in contact with Concordia-St. Paul and brings players a bunch of used equipment.
Reading that Louie Varland was going to make his major-league debut Sept. 7, 2022 at Yankee Stadium, McKenzie recalled that Twins Hall of Famer Kent Hrbek made his debut in the Bronx in 1981. So, Lunch callled Hrbek asking for any advice to give his former starter before the game (Varland pitched 5 1/3 innings allowing one run).
Hrbek told McKenzie to tell him “it’s just baseball, it’s a bigger stadium and screw the Yankees.”
You can write the final line of the story ...