Injury update on Blue Jays' centerfielder Daulton Varsho

Varsho initially hurt his right shoulder when he dove for a Zach Neto liner back in August in a win over the Los Angeles Angels.

It had started getting better, but then was set back by a collision with hulking first baseman Pete Alonso during a September 10th win against the New York Mets.

Shortly thereafter Varsho got an MRI done where team Dr. Keith Meister read Varsho's the results, telling the Blue Jays outfielder there were two options - get a platelet-rich plasma injection that might help heal his shoulder but leave him at risk for worsening the damage in his rotator cuff down the road, or get it repaired properly in an operation right now.

A second opinion from Dr. Neal ElAttrache yielded the same advice.

At the time Varsho was told with a strong rehabilitation over the offseason he'd miss Opening Day and probably wouldn't be be ready to go till late March early April.

Now it's starting to look like he will be ready much quicker. Varsho has been working out at the Blue Jays Player Development Complex for over a month now, long before pitcher's and catchers reported.

He's throwing the ball from 90 feet, playing the infield and taking batting practice.

Throwing (and slamming into walls) will be a bigger part of his recovery timeline, however this is more than anyone expected to be seeing from him on in February.

With his good buddy Kevin Kiermaier arriving at Spring Training yesterday you can bet he will assist him in every way to get back in centerfield as soon as humanly possible.

Here he is taking live BP with Bo Bichette and Ernie Clement launching a few homeruns off of Bowden Francis.

And then taking more live batting practice by himself with Jose Berrios.

Luckily for Varsho Don Mattingly had the same shoulder surgery that he did, so he can offer advice the him that can assist Varsho with his recovery.

Fellow outfielder George Springer also reached out to hi former teammate Michael Brantley who also had the same injury and what he did to rehabilitate in order to come back on time, and by the looks of it maybe even earlier.

Oh and one more little interesting update on Daulton Varsho.

Ross Atkins added in Varsho's name (unprompted) alongside Vladdy and Bo when broadly discussing how the Blue Jays approach extension talks.