When I argued against this trade last year, I saw some claim that the "Twins didn't think Varland would maintain his level of play"... and now he's gotten even better. Kinda reminds me of the Pressly trade.
Oh, and the whole "you guys don't like this trade because he's a Minnesota native" was also a load of BS. Personally, I'm a fan of good pitchers no matter where they come from, and I think the vast majority of Twins fans would agree with that sentiment.
At the very least, the Duran and Jax trades are looking good, so going 2/3 on fairly major trades is solid... but that could have been 2/2. It's not that Varland would single-handedly salvage the season for us, but the return didn't justify moving on from 5 affordable seasons of control. Not to mention that they should have asked for a prospect other than Roden (not because of his talent level, because of the mismatch of LH OFs and all the other prospects on similar timelines).