By: Landon Stilz

Every five days, Louie Varland steps onto the dirt mound and prepares to toe the rubber in front of thousands of fans. The Minnesota Twins’ starting pitcher is living out the dreams so many young boys and girls have of playing in the MLB. But just seven years ago, playing in the Majors was exactly that for Louie; just a dream.

“I only had seven innings of work my freshman year of high school. So I really didn’t get any exposure,” said Varland. 

However, that all changed when he took a trip from St. Paul, MN  to Utica, NY to play some summer baseball for the Utica Blue Sox.

Louie Varland, a Minnesota native, has been a Major League pitcher since 2022 for his hometown team the Minnesota Twins. Back in 2017 though, he was heading into his sophomore season of high school looking for a chance to get better. That is when his brother, Gus Varland, pointed him in the direction of the Utica Blue Sox, a team that Gus pitched for a year prior. This was the place where Louie Varland’s career took off.

“I would throw the credit his way for showing the path and what to do to get exposure,” Varland said of his brother.

“Teams would come to watch my brother pitch, and then realize he had a younger brother. And at that point they would just wait a year and then check me out on the stats,” said Louie.

The stats deserved to be checked out. Varland tallied 51 strikeouts in 44.1 innings that season, the fifth most punchouts in Blue Sox single-season history.

He credited that to then pitching coach for the team Doug Delett. The now head coach worked with Varland on his mechanics.

“It’s okay to pitch backward,” said Delett. “To make his fastball look even faster, you don’t start out with it. Instead, start with something like a curveball or a changeup.”

Varland was happy to make those adjustments. 

“It was about becoming a pitcher and not a thrower,” said Varland. “I finally understood how to pitch. Working inside and outside, up and down, and this and that. Instead of just throwing a strike, it’s like throwing in quadrants.”

“He was confident. He knew what he had to do side-work wise, off the field, and while he was working at his craft,” Delett said. “I kinda had a feeling that the kid was gonna go somewhere at that point.”

Even though Varland worked so hard, he and his teammates still had time for fun in the bullpen. But that fun resulted in a broken fungo bat and a whole lot of laughs.

“I went out to the bullpen to talk strategy for the rest of the game,” said Delett. “Louie kinda looked at me and said “Coach, I broke your fungo”. They were playing pepper and Louie was holding the bat by the barrel and hitting it with the handle.”

Louie had his fair share of success and his fun with the Blue Sox. In the end, Varland followed the path his brother paved and it paid off when the Twins drafted him in 2019.

“It’s a complete dream come true. I’ve worked so hard for all of this and now I’m doing it,” said Varland.

So many strive to achieve that. Louie, who has worked with young pitchers, had some words of advice for those trying to be like him.

“Just be coachable,” said Varland. “You are not a final product right now and you have to get better. The only way to do that is to be coachable.”