BALTIMORE — When he arrived on the South Side for the home stretch of the worst season in modern baseball history in 2024, Miguel Vargas was the poster boy for White Sox misery.
Two years later, the third baseman is drawing MVP chants at the heart of an exciting lineup that’s pushing its contending window wide open well ahead of schedule.
Vargas’ .853 OPS is only part of what has replaced the ‘24 image of a seemingly dejected Vargas, freshly traded from the eventual World Series-winning Dodgers, lost in his thoughts at the end of a lifeless Sox dugout.
The face of a man who got traded from the Dodgers to the White Sox pic.twitter.com/0pMAuXPDCx
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 6, 2024
By now, more fans are more familiar with the hard-charging 26-year-old whose helmet regularly flies off while sprinting around the bases, not to mention his 19 home runs and 15 doubles, or the .357/.455/.786 tear he’s been on over the past week.
Vargas’ teammates rave about a player who has emerged as a clubhouse leader. The rest of the league is starting to take notice, too.
“He’s been insane,” Sox starter Anthony Kay said. “I had never seen him play up until this year and he’s been obviously a huge piece for us.”
The expectations for Vargas following the Michael Kopech trade weren’t quite as high as those shouldered by the likes of Colson Montgomery, Noah Schultz and other foundational, homegrown pieces of rebuild.
But he’s shattered them through the first half of this season nonetheless, slashing .248/.361/.492 while powering a surprisingly slug-happy squad alongside Montgomery and the injured Munetaka Murakami.
The Sox were second in MLB with 118 home runs and on pace for 226, which would be their most since 2008 — also the last time a Sox third baseman made the All-Star team (Joe Crede).
Already surpassing his 16 homers last season when he hit .234/.316/.401, Vargas also leads the Sox’ unofficial in-house scoreboard for hustling on the basepaths, all while flashing a reliable if not overwhelming glove and playing in all but two games so far this year.
“He’s a cornerstone third baseman,” said veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk, who has played with his share of them over the past decade. “He’s just a great teammate, great person to be around here pregame with, laughing and telling jokes with. And then obviously he works really hard and it shows out there.
“But he’s as good of a human as he is a baseball player,” Grichuk said.
Vargas’ blossoming at the plate surely has something to do with an uptick in bat speed to an average of 74.2 mph, a sizable jump from the 70.6 mph he swung last season.
But it’s also a testament to the adjustments he’s made in his second full season as an everyday player, according to manager Will Venable.
“He’s been so consistent,” Venable said. “Last year we saw it in flashes, we saw him in some stretches that lasted a little longer, but just wasn’t able to really maintain it… He plays every day and he’s running hard every day, he’s getting on base every day. And he just hasn’t stopped.”
It’s rubbing off, too. Montgomery credited Vargas’ 11-pitch at-bat ahead of him on Monday for setting up the shortstop’s RBI double.
“He’s grinding his butt off, making the guy throw his best pitches, and then he leaves something over the plate for me,” Montgomery said. “I just think that’s what everyone does and I think that’s what everyone’s capable of doing.”
Vargas is focused on that grind, not any All-Star speculation.
“As a team we’ve been playing really good and we’ve got bigger goals than that,” Vargas said. “I’m not a selfish guy, so I want to focus and end this half really strong and see how it takes for the second half too.”