Concordia-St. Paul Professional Athletes

When Concordia-St. Paul sent Louis Varland into professional baseball, few outside of Saint Paul, MN had him pegged as a future closer for a major league club. Now, midway through one of the more quietly dominant relief seasons in the American League, Varland is forcing everyone to pay attention.

The Blue Jays righty carries a 1.15 ERA — a number that belongs in a video game, not a September bullpen — through the final stretch of the 2026 season. In back-to-back outings this week, he was every bit as sharp as that figure suggests: one inning and two strikeouts against the Guardians on Thursday, followed by another scoreless frame with a strikeout against the Royals on Saturday. Clean, efficient, dominant.

The Weapon Behind the Numbers

What's made Varland's season historic isn't just velocity — though his fastball has taken a notable step forward — it's the pairing of that heater with a changeup that has become one of the nastier offerings in the league. According to Sports Illustrated, the pitch has given Varland an entirely new avenue to neutralize hitters, creating the kind of tunneling problem that makes even disciplined lineups look overmatched. When a closer can beat you hard or soft, up or down, the at-bat is already half-lost before the first pitch.

The development arc here matters. Varland isn't a prototypical power arm who stumbled into a closing role. He's refined his arsenal to the point where the changeup functions as a genuine strikeout pitch alongside his fastball — a combination that, at its best, mirrors what the game's elite late-inning arms have built their reputations on.

The Varland Name in Pro Ball

Louis isn't the only Concordia-St. Paul product on a major league roster. His brother Gus Varland is currently pitching for the Washington Nationals, meaning the small Division II program in Saint Paul has two alumni active in MLB simultaneously — a remarkable marker for any program, let alone one outside the traditional college baseball pipeline.

That context makes Louis's 2026 campaign land even harder. A 1.15 ERA as a closer isn't just a good season — it's the kind of performance that earns postseason conversations, arbitration leverage, and, more immediately, the trust of a manager to hand over the ninth inning every night.

For Golden Bears alumni keeping tabs on one of their own, the message from the final week of August into September is simple: Varland isn't just holding his spot in the majors. He's building a case to be considered one of the best relievers in the game.

Concordia-St. Paul has a quietly remarkable footprint in MLB right now, and nowhere is it more visible than in Toronto, where two Golden Bears alumni are helping push the Blue Jays into contention.

Varland Locks Down the Ninth

Louis Varland has become one of the most reliable closers in the American League, and the numbers back it up. The right-hander posted a 1.18 ERA heading into the final week of August — a figure that would look elite on a starter, let alone a high-leverage closer — and notched saves No. 29 and 30 across a defining stretch of games.

Save No. 29 came in a tight 4-3 win over the New York Yankees, where Varland slammed the door after Dylan Cease had dominated through six innings. Save No. 30 arrived in a 3-0 shutout of the Kansas City Royals, capping a masterclass bullpen effort that gave Toronto a clean, confident series win. In those two outings, he totaled 2.1 innings and struck out two without allowing a run, nudging his ERA down from 1.20 to 1.18. For a program out of Division II Minnesota, producing a 30-save closer in MLB is the kind of story that doesn't get enough credit.

Lukes Delivers the Damage

The other half of the CSP connection is providing the offense to make those saves matter. Outfielder Nathan Lukes turned in two of the week's most clutch at-bats, both coming off the bench.

Against the Yankees, Lukes entered as a pinch hitter and ripped a solo home run in the fifth inning — part of a two-RBI night that proved decisive in a one-run game. Then, in the Royals shutout, he went further: a three-run shot that accounted for all of Toronto's scoring and handed the pitching staff all the cushion it needed. Two games, two critical pinch-hit appearances, five RBIs combined — Lukes is making the most of every opportunity he gets.

A Small School, a Big Stage

It would be easy to overlook Concordia-St. Paul in a conversation about MLB pipelines. The school competes in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, far from the spotlight of Power Four programs. But Varland and Lukes are demonstrating that the Bears develop big-league contributors — and that this particular Blue Jays roster has become something of a CSP reunion.

With Varland's ERA sitting under 1.20 at the end of August and 30 saves already banked, the closing job in Toronto is his. And with Lukes delivering in the highest-leverage pinch-hit spots on the roster, the Golden Bears' influence on this team's success is anything but marginal.

Concordia-St. Paul's Louis Varland is making a strong case for one of the more quietly elite relief arms in the American League, and a pair of appearances against the New York Yankees this week made the argument louder than ever.

The Performances

On Saturday, August 22, Varland entered a one-run game in the ninth inning against the Yankees — exactly the situation high-leverage relievers are built for. Jazz Chisholm Jr. immediately tested him with a leadoff double to the wall in center, and the Blue Jays' 4-3 lead was suddenly very much in jeopardy. Varland didn't flinch. He struck out Austin Wells — with Wells burning the Yankees' final challenge on the third strike — and finished the inning to seal the win.

That outing followed a performance earlier in the week in which Varland struck out all three batters he faced in Toronto's 4-1 victory over New York, with Charles McAdoo's pair of RBIs supplying the cushion. Three batters, three strikeouts — as clean as it gets.

The Numbers

Across the two-game stretch, Varland tossed 1.0 inning against the Rays on August 20 (1 K) and another dominant frame against the Yankees on August 22 (2 K), keeping his ERA at a sparkling 1.22. That figure places him among the most effective relievers in baseball by that measure. He's not sneaking up on anyone at this point — he's just executing.

The Bigger Picture

Varland's journey to a high-leverage role in the majors runs through Concordia-St. Paul, a Division II program in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference that has quietly produced legitimate big-league arms. His brother Gus Varland is also on a major league roster, with the Washington Nationals, making this one of the more remarkable sibling stories in recent college baseball history for a program of CSP's size.

For Golden Bears alumni, Louis Varland's emergence as a trusted late-inning weapon for the Blue Jays — not a roster filler, but a genuine difference-maker in pennant-race situations — is about as good as it gets heading into the final weeks of the regular season.