All throughout the day that Thursday, his teammates’ phones were vibrating, letting them know, one after another, that their time with the Twins had come to a conclusion.

Never, when he was sitting with his Twins teammates at their downtown Cleveland hotel that day, did Louie Varland expect he would get a call, too.

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Louis Varland reacts to a strikeout against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

But just minutes before the afternoon July 31 trade deadline, Varland got news that he was being sent to Toronto and away from his hometown team, the one that drafted him in the 15th round years earlier and oversaw his development from starter to dominant reliever.

What had been a “dream come true,” Varland said, was suddenly over.

“The trade caught me off guard. I’m sure it caught everybody off guard,” Varland said Wednesday by phone. “But it all happened for a reason. I kept telling myself that and trusted it. … At the end of the day, it’s what happened and you can either be sad about it, sulk about it or look at it with an optimistic view and … that’s what I did.”

Varland, 27, described himself as initially “blindsided” by the trade. But the North St. Paul and Concordia-St. Paul alumnus — like older brother Gus, 28, currently on the Diamondbacks’ roster — adapted quickly to his new team and now finds himself just four wins away from earning a World Series ring.

When the Series begins on Friday night, the Toronto Blue Jays will be searching for their first trophy since 1993, when St. Paul native Paul Molitor led them to their second consecutive title. This time around, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the ones looking to repeat, and Varland and the Blue Jays are the only team left standing in their way.

Should Toronto come away victorious, Varland figures to be a big part of the reason why.

In the Blue Jays’ 11 playoff games thus far, Varland has been called upon 10 times, the most used reliever out of the Jays’ bullpen. In the seven-game American League Championship Series against Seattle, Varland pitched in six of those games.

“I wouldn’t say it’s what I expected, but it is what I wanted,” he said. “To be used and trusted like that, it feels great. I’m glad I’m in a position to pitch every day. … I’ve been available every day, and they love using me. So, it’s a great feeling.”

Varland has a 3.27 earned-run average with 13 strikeouts in 11 innings this postseason. All four of the runs he has given up have come on home runs, including one to former teammate Jorge Polanco in the ALCS against Seattle. Varland has been called upon in all kinds of situations this October, from starting a bullpen game one day to entering in the eighth inning on another. He has often been called upon to get four outs.

Pitching against the Yankees, he said, was the “peak” of the pressure he has felt this offseason, though the intensity will ratchet up again once the Fall Classic begins.

“It’s been just crazy, fun, extremely exciting,” Varland said. “We’re still playing baseball. It’s Oct. 22 now. I’m not used to it, that’s for sure.”

While he has never pitched this late into October, Varland did get a little taste of the playoffs while he was with the Twins, pitching in two games during the 2023 season, both, as it turns out, in victories over his current team.

That came at the end of a season in which he was up and down between the majors and the minors, primarily as a starting pitcher. That September, the Twins, believing he could be a postseason weapon, put him in the bullpen. The 2024 season followed a similar trajectory for Varland, who transitioned to the bullpen at the end of the season once more before the Twins finally converted him to a relief role full-time this year.

The results couldn’t have been much better.

Varland had a 2.02 ERA across 51 games before he was dealt at the deadline. He pitched in 74 regular-season games, a sign of his durability, and has pitched in 10 more during the playoffs. Now come the most important games of the right-hander’s career — and he’s ready for the challenge.

“I’m blessed to be in this position,” Varland said. “It’s been a crazy, fun ride. I never thought I’d be pitching in the World Series, but here we are.”

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Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and Twin Cities favorite Brandi Carlile will headline Target Center in downtown Minneapolis on Feb. 21.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Oct. 31 through Axs. American Express cardholders have access to a presale that starts at 1 p.m. Oct. 28.

A native of rural Washington state, Carlile claims some of her strongest supporters in the Twin Cities, thanks in part to airplay from Cities 97 early in her career. Over the past two decades, Carlile has performed locally more than 30 times in venues ranging from the Fine Line and Varsity Theater to the Basilica Block Party and the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand.

In April, Carlile released her eighth album, “Who Believes in Angels?,” a collaboration with Elton John. The pair wrote the music with John’s longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt. It earned warm reviews and hit No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart. Their single “Never Too Late” served as the lead single for the documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late” and was nominated for a best original song Oscar.

Carlile will issue the follow-up, “Returning to Myself,” on Friday. It sees her “looking inward, reflecting backward and, ultimately, returning home after spending the last few years pouring herself into collaborations with musical icons and legends,” according to a news release. She produced it with Watt, the National’s Aaron Dessner and Justin “Bon Iver” Vernon.

Over the course of her career, Carlile has earned 26 Grammy nominations and 11 wins. In 2019, she co-founded the country music supergroup the Highwomen with Amanda Shires, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby. The band’s self-titled debut was a commercial and critical hit.

She also worked with Tanya Tucker on two albums, including 2023’s “Sweet Western Sound” and 2019’s Grammy-winning “While I’m Livin’.” In 2022, she backed Joni Mitchell at the Newport Folk Festival. It was Mitchell’s first live performance since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015.

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By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon is staging a marathon speech on the Senate floor to protest President Donald Trump’s “tightening authoritarian grip on the country” amid the government shutdown.

Merkley started speaking at 6:21 p.m. Tuesday evening and was still going more than 21 hours later Wednesday afternoon, pausing for increasingly lengthy questions from other Democratic senators. It was unclear how long he would go, or whether he could approach the record-breaking 25-hour speech by his colleague, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, in April. Booker was also protesting Trump.

“I’m starting to feel a little dazed after all of these hours on the floor,” Merkley said after around 18 hours, and he stopped frequently to take a sip of water or gather his thoughts. But he kept going.

The senator’s talk-a-thon comes as Democrats have forced the government shutdown over their demands to extend government health care subsidies, and as Republicans have refused to negotiate over the expiring tax credits until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Democrats have voted 11 times to keep it closed — with a 12th vote expected on Wednesday — and the two sides have made little progress toward a resolution.

Merkley said during his speech that Republicans were the ones shutting down the government “to continue the strategy of slashing Americans’ health care” after passing cuts to Medicaid and other programs over the summer.

He used many hours of his speech to describe what he said were Trump’s authoritarian moves, including attacks on the press and policies that Democrats say are enriching billionaires at the expense of regular people. He said that Trump’s plan is to replace a government “by and for the people with a government by and for the powerful.”

Booker broke the all-time record for longest continuous floor speech in April after surpassing the record set 68 years ago by then-Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Thurmond was a segregationist and southern Democrat who was filibustering the advance of the Civil Rights Act in 1957.

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Merkley, who is in his third term in the Senate, has already broken his own personal record for a floor speech, which was more than 15 hours in 2017 to protest Trump’s then-nomination of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. At the time, it was the Senate’s eighth-longest floor speech.

Like Booker, Merkley’s speech was not a filibuster, which is meant to halt or delay the advance of a specific piece of legislation.

By holding the floor open all night, Merkley forced Senate floor staff, security and other support workers who are currently unpaid to work overtime hours. The government has been shut down since Oct. 1.

“The Democrats are going to make Capitol Police and Capitol support staff — who they refuse to pay — work all night so they can give speeches patting themselves on the back for shutting down the government and hurting the American people,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, posted on X Tuesday night. “How ridiculous is that?”

At around 2:45 a.m., Merkley paused to untie his shoelace. He said standing in one place had “made my shoes a little tight.”

“I don’t recommend standing through the night and talking,” said Merkley, who turns 69 Friday. “Not a healthy pursuit. But I am standing here to ring the alarm bells.”

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus told St. Paul officials this week that they will sue if the city enacts an ordinance regulating firearms.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and suburban mayors last week called again on the state to repeal a preemption law that bars cities and counties from regulating firearms, ammunition or their components. They said they want to put in place local firearm-related ordinances to reduce violence.

“The St. Paul City Council is trying to make a political statement with an illegal ordinance, and they know it,” said Bryan Strawser, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus chairman, in a Wednesday statement. “This isn’t about safety, it’s about virtue signaling at the expense of the law and the rights of peaceable citizens. Our members expect us to stand up when government overreaches, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.”

The City Council is scheduled to introduce the ordinance at its Wednesday afternoon meeting and a public hearing is slated for Nov. 5. If the Council votes to approve the ordinance, which could be Nov. 12, it would go to Carter to be signed into city code.

The proposed ordinance says it “is designed to take effect only upon the repeal, amendment, or judicial invalidation of state preemption laws that currently prohibit local regulation of firearms, ensuring legal enforceability while signaling the city’s readiness to act when empowered.”

But the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a Tuesday letter to Carter and the City Council that “Minnesota courts have repeatedly held that municipalities may not do indirectly what they are forbidden to do directly. … An ordinance that is invalid today does not become valid merely because its enforcement is deferred until an unspecified future date.”

“Should the City proceed with the passage of this ordinance, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus will immediately initiate legal action to challenge its validity in court,” continued the letter by Rob Doar, the nonprofit’s general counsel. “We will seek declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of our members, supporters, and all peaceable gun owners residing in St. Paul whose rights and legal clarity are placed in jeopardy by this unlawful measure.”

The City Council will be moving forward with the ordinance as planned, said City Council President Rebecca Noecker.

“It’s not surprising that the Gun Owners Caucus is once again standing in the way of common sense legislation that is supported by the majority of Americans and that saves lives,” she said. “The City Council is responding to the needs of our community — and especially our children — for safety, not to the threats of a special interest group.”

St. Paul’s proposed ordinance

After the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, which killed two children and injured dozens more, Gov. Tim Walz said he would call a special session of the Legislature to address gun policy.

Walz more recently walked back his call, saying holding one would be a waste of time without an agreement on a framework ahead of time from Republicans.

Community members and Walz have been calling on Minnesota to take “action on assault weapons,” Carter said last week. “If the legislature is unable to do something different, local leaders will.”

St. Paul’s proposed ordinance says it would:

“Ban assault weapons, large-capacity magazines, and binary triggers within city limits.” Binary triggers allow a semiautomatic weapon to fire both when the trigger is pulled and released, increasing its rate of fire.
“Require all firearms to have serial numbers and prohibit untraceable ‘ghost guns.’”
“Restrict firearms in sensitive public spaces including parks, libraries, recreation centers and city buildings.”
“Mandate clear signage at public facilities to inform residents and encourage compliance.”
“Establish penalties for violations and authorize enforcement by local public safety officials.”

Gun owners group: St. Paul can avoid ‘costly’ legal fight

The City Council received eight emails from people, separate from the Gun Owners Caucus letter, urging them to vote against the ordinance, according to public comments attached to the Council agenda as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Stop the games with … going after legal gun owners,” one person wrote. “… It is a soft on crime problem. … Start locking up criminals for a change!”

The Gun Owners Caucus called on the City Council “to respect the law, honor the limits of local authority, and avoid dragging taxpayers into yet another costly and doomed legal fight.”

Cities and counties can adopt laws that are identical to state law, regulate the discharge of firearms, and the zoning of firearm-related businesses — “that’s all that they can do in statute,” Doar of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said last week.

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Jennifer Lor, Carter’s press secretary, said Wednesday there’s no case law that prohibits what the city is proposing.

“Furthermore, contingent laws are often put in place and have gone into effect all over the country,” she said. “For example, several states have enacted contingent laws to ban abortion that were, when enacted, in direct violation of Roe v. Wade.”

St. Paul City Council members issued statements in support of the ordinance last week.

“I never want to see another mass shooting in St. Paul, in Minnesota, anywhere,” Councilmember Saura Jost said last week. “… Let this ordinance settle any question about where the people in St. Paul stand on gun violence. St. Paul will be ready when the State lets us do the work.”