In a vacuum the Varland trade theoretically makes sense. But when considering the rest of their actions since the fire sale, it's representative of a failure of process IMO.
By trading expiring contracts, late-arb relievers, and getting salary relief for Correa while keeping Lopez/Ryan/Jeffers/etc, they were signaling their intention to still be competitive over the remaining term of control of Ryan and Lopez. Given that, it was imperative that they come up with high leverage relievers on the cheap. They had one in Varland.
But then they traded him away too for a pitching prospect not ready to contribute and a redundant outfielder. A trade like that signals that your competitive window is likely coming after Lopez and Ryan are off the books. It signaled that a further rebuild was coming.
But given the two paths these conflicting moves signaled they could be taking, they somehow ended up taking neither. They kept their most valuable trade assets without doing anything to reinforce their deficiencies that would prevent being realistically competitive. They didn't reinvest Correa's savings in the team. Instead, they thought they could be cute in remaining competitive while decreasing investment. It seemed like a bad idea at the time, and seems worse now that they're looking at the worst of both worlds: no competitive short-term window while failing to maximize the returns on your valuable assets.
Now you're not getting anything for Lopez. Your other assets are diminishing in value in the decreased time of control that comes with waiting another year.
It's looking more and more likely to me that Falvey wanted to continue the rebuild and was prevented by Tommy Boy, saw the impossible situation they had now put themselves in, and asked to part ways.
Going into last year's Winter Meetings without a plan in place re: the rebuild may prove to be a decision that sets this franchise back years. We'll see if Tom wants to continue digging this hole come this year's deadline.
Note that Varland's birthplace appears nowhere in this rambling manifesto