Watch: Minnesota native Gus Varland finds out he made MLB roster
Louie Varland made his MLB debut with the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium last summer, and now his big brother Gus has made it to the big leagues, too.
The Milwaukee Brewers released video Monday showing the moment manager Craig Counsel told Gus Varland, who is 13 months older than Louie, that he made the Opening Day roster.
Soak it all in, Gus. You’re heading to the Big Leagues.#ThisIsMyCrew | @GusBusVarland pic.twitter.com/UIh2uxjzXO
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) March 27, 2023
Varland is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota. After graduating from North St. Paul High School he pitched at Division II Concordia University in St. Paul. He then pitched in the Northwoods League (amateur wood bat league comparable to the Cape Cod League) for the Willmar Stingers in west-central Minnesota
He was selected in the 14th round of the 2018 MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics and played two years in the minors before the 2020 minor league season was wiped out by the pandemic. He then joined the Dodgers and pitched at Double-A for them in 2021 and 2022 before the Brewers selected him in the Rule 5 draft in December.
As Seth Stohs of Brewer Fanatic noted following the Rule 5 draft, Varland saw his fastball and slider velocity increase when he transitioned from a starting pitcher to a reliever, with his heater clocked as high as 98 mph.
Louie Varland, meanwhile, will begin the 2023 season at Triple-A St. Paul where he'll be one of the primary minor-league candidates to assume a starting rotation spot if one opens up at the big league level for the Twins.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.