Louis Varland (and Ty France) Are Good Players Who Came at a Sizable Cost

The Blue Jays set out to fill some very specific holes at the trade deadline, including back-end help for the bullpen, a starting pitcher, and a right-handed bat. The Jays killed two birds with one stone, as Kendry Rojas and Alan Roden were sent out for RHP Louis Varland and 1B Ty France.

Kendry Rojas is a 22-year old left-handed starting pitching prospect, who was most recently ranked the seventh-best prospect in the Jays Centre top-20 prospect rankings. Rojas first turned heads in the Spring Breakout game, where he showed improved velocity compared to his last appearance in the Arizona Fall League, sitting 96 mph with his fastballs and touching 97. However, to start the season, he was placed on the seven-day IL due to an abdominal injury that prevented him from pitching for the first two months of the minor league season. 

Rojas came back on May 30, and pitched six rehab starts with two in the Florida Complex League and four in Low-A Dunedin, where he pitched 18 innings and posted a 1.00 ERA, with a 38.8% K rate and a 7.5% walk rate. Most notably, the velocity gains that we witnessed in the abbreviated Spring Breakout performance seemed very real. Rojas uses two different fastball variations, and both his sinker and his fastball were sitting 95 mph compared to 93-94 mph in 2024. This marks another velocity jump for Rojas, who’s still filling out his frame and getting stronger, which may point to some more projection incoming. 

Rojas has a four-pitch mix, with his most used pitch being his sinker, which sits at 95 mph. In Dunedin, the sinker had more ride and run, but in his lone start with the Buffalo Bisons in Triple-A, the different ball depressed the shape of his sinker, losing a few inches of ride and a lot of run. Still, the pitch was effective at generating whiffs despite getting hit hard. He also throws a four-seam fastball that usually has more ride and less run. Kendry Rojas throws two very effective secondary pitches, with his hard-slider sitting around 87 mph which he’s able to zone well and is a strikeout pitch, and a mid-80s changeup that when he commands is also a big whiff generator. 

The one concern for Rojas is his health, he’s not very undersized at 6’ 2” and 190 lbs but there may be concern on how his body holds up over a full starter’s workload. His career-high in innings pitched is 84 innings in 2023, and he’s been hurt the past couple of years. If his health holds up, Rojas has the stuff and command to be a solid mid-rotation starter. 

Alan Roden is the other prospect to get traded, although he’s had significant struggles as a major leaguer, with a .204/.283/.306 slash line while striking out 21.2% of the time and walking only 7.1% of the time. The 25-year-old’s best skill is his contact ability, and although he struggled with rolling over pitches in the big leagues, he still had a 150 wRC+ in Triple-A with a .331/.423/.496 slash line, walking more than he struck out. In 2024, he had a breakout season as a prospect, showcasing some untapped power that he hadn’t showcased earlier in his pro career and made it more likely for him to stick as a big leaguer. Roden does have some concerns with his swing and stance, it’s not the most traditional and it may not be as effective against major league pitching, he also does have pretty extreme platoon splits in Triple-A and may be stuck as a platoon bat in the future. With the Blue Jays logjam in the outfield, Roden wasn’t able to get the consistent at-bats needed to get his bat going, and will now have ample opportunity in the Twins depleted major league roster.

Overall, this was a sizable price to pay for a rental corner infielder and a good, controllable reliever, but the best organizations deal from positions of strength, and that's what the Blue Jays did at this deadline. Hopefully, Varland and France contribute to a lengthy playoff run that will mitigate the pain of any success Roden or Rojas find out in Minnesota.