By Tim Best
The story of the 2016 Blue Sox season couldn’t be told without Gus Varland. “The Gus Bus” arrived in Utica in early July along with Kevin Woebke, his teammate at Concordia University in St. Paul, to help bolster the Blue Sox pitching staff for the home stretch of the regular season and for a potential postseason run. Varland, Woebke, and Bear Bellomy, who had joined the team from Wright State University at the end of June, proved to be valuable late-season additions. Varland dazzled in his Blue Sox debut, getting the start at home on July 15 against the Adirondack Trail Blazers and shutting them out over six innings on the mound in a 5-0 victory. In the regular season, he went 2-1 with a 1.50 ERA in a dozen innings over four appearances, two as a starter and two as a reliever. In the PGCBL playoffs, Varland got the start in Game 2 of the West Division Championship Series against the Elmira Pioneers. Unfortunately, he was the losing pitcher despite allowing only one earned run (and two unearned runs) in seven innings while throwing just 79 pitches. The Blue Sox won the deciding Game 3 in Elmira the next day, but they came up short in the PGCBL Championship Series against the Amsterdam Mohawks.
Varland was selected in the 14th round of the 2018 MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics and played his first two years of professional baseball in their farm system. Prior to the 2021 season, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and spent two seasons with their AA affiliate in Tulsa. While with Tulsa, Varland was their starting pitcher against the Wichita Wind Surge in May 2022 opposite his brother, Louie.
After the 2022 season, Varland was taken by the Milwaukee Brewers in the Rule 5 draft and made their Opening Day roster. He made his big-league debut in the 2023 season opener at Wrigley Field and struck out the first hitter he faced. The Brewers designated him for assignment in May and he returned to the Dodgers shortly thereafter.
Varland made eight appearances in relief for the 2023 Dodgers, going 1-1 with a 3.09 ERA in 11.2 innings. This year, the Dodgers opened the season with a two-game series against the Padres in Seoul, South Korea. In the final game of that two-game series, Varland needed just two pitches to get the final out in the top of the 9th inning. He has a 3.00 ERA in six innings so far this year and yielded just one run over 5.1 innings in May after being recalled from AAA Oklahoma City.