There had been rumblings that Varsho could return at some point over the weekend — and that’s still in play for Sunday — but with weather in the forecast on Saturday the Blue Jays didn’t want to push it. He’ll remain at Triple-A Buffalo and serve as their designated hitter on Friday night.

Varsho is expected to play a handful of games at the Triple-A level over the next few days and could potentially be activated to make his season debut this upcoming weekend. The 28-year-old center fielder has been on the shelf since Opening Day continuing his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery.

The 28-year-old slugger will play a couple of games at that level before moving his rehab assignment to Triple-A Buffalo. The expectation is that he’ll play around five games there before rejoining the Blue Jays. It sounds like most of next week will be spent on the rehab assignment with a return to the big league club coming the following week against the Yankees.

He’ll take a brief pause in the middle of the week to be with his wife for the birth of baby Varsho, but is expected to be ready to head out on a minor league rehab assignment immediately afterwards. He was cleared to play in an extended spring training on Monday without any throwing limitations and will take live batting practice on Tuesday. There’s a chance he’s ready to make his season debut in a couple weeks before the end of April.