Miguel Vargas

Note: This page is for infielder Miguel Vargas who made his major league debut in 2022; for others with the same name, click here.

Miguel Antonio Vargas Echary

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 205 lb.

• Debut August 3, 2022

• Born November 17, 1999 in Havana Cuba

BR page

Biographical Information

Infielder Miguel Vargas is the son of Cuban legend Lazaro Vargas. The two defected together in the Bahamas in 2015 because Lazaro wanted his son to have the opportunity he never had to play in the major leagues.

At just 15, he appeared in 8 games for the Industriales in the Cuban Serie Nacional during the 2014-2015 Cuban Serie Nacional season. He went just 3 for 26 (.115), but it was still a remarkable feat. After defecting, he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 7, 2017 and began his professional career the next year, appearing in 53 games between the AZL Dodgers, Ogden Raptors and Great Lakes Loons, the latter as one of the youngest players in the Midwest League. His combined batting line was .330/.404/.465. In 2019, he played 124 games between Great Lakes and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League, hitting .308/.380/.440, with 38 doubles, 76 runs scored and 77 RBIs. He was named a mid-season and post-season All-Star in the Midwest League, as well as an organizational All-Star.

The COVID-19 pandemic which shut down the minor leagues forced him to stay idle in 2020, although he did spend some time at the Dodgers' alternate training site on the University of Southern California campus as one of the top prospects in the organization. In 2021, he returned to action with Great Lakes, which had now been raised one level from Low-A to High-A, but after 37 games was promoted to the AA Tulsa Drillers where he spent the remainder of the season. In 120 games, he put up another excellent batting line of .319/.380/.527, with 27 doubles, 23 homers, 98 runs and 76 RBIs. He was once again named an organizational All-Star at the end of the season.

In 2022, he started the season in AAA with the Oklahoma City Dodgers and was named to the National League team in the 2022 Futures Game, played in his future home ballpark, Dodger Stadium. He was hitting .291 in 94 games, with 24 homers and 15 doubles, when he got his first call-up to the Show on August 3rd, the result of injuries to Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor. He started at DH against the San Francisco Giants that day and had a great game, going 2 for 4 with a double, 2 RBIs and a stolen base in a 3-0 Dodgers win. He hit .170 in 18 games for the Dodgers, with 1 homer and 8 RBIs. In spring training in 2023, he was dealing with a broken finger, and the team instructed him not to swing even though he was playing regularly in order to work on his defensive play. In spite of this, he still managed to draw 9 walks! The exercise must have helped his batting eye, as his plate discipline had improved by leaps and bounds when the season started: his chase rate was the lowest in the majors, and he was leading the National League with 11 walks and an OBP of .577 after 7 games. He couldn't keep it up, however, as he hit just .195 in 81 games, with 7 homers and 32 RBIs for an OPS+ of 82. He also spent time in AAA, batting .288 in 60 games for Oklahoma City with 10 homers and 43 RBIs.

He started the 2024 season in the minors, not getting called up to Dodger Stadium until May 17th. He received relatively little playing time over the next three weeks, hitting .250 in 7 games, then was sent back to the Oklahoma City Baseball Club for another stint. His next call-up, on June 17th, was the right one, though, as he quickly reeled off hits in five straight games to raise his batting average to .344. On July 6th, he ahd the first true signature moment of his career when he was called upon to pinch-hit for Gavin Lux to lead off the bottom of the 8th against Bryan Hudson of the Milwaukee Brewers after Christian Yelich had just tied the score in the top of the inning. He hit a long fly ball to left field, and Yelich was camped under it, thinking he would catch it without having to leap, but it was counting without the lip of the top of the left field wall; Yelich's glove caught against the slight protuberance, and the ball landed on top of the wall for a go-ahead homer. Shohei Ohtani then added a no-doubt homer a couple of batters later, but it was Michael's pinch-hit blast that was the winning run in the 5-3 victory. He was hitting .239 after 30 games, with 3 homers and 9 RBIs, when the Dodgers pulled off a big deal just before the trading deadline, acquiring three veterans players from the struggling Chicago White Sox, Ps Erick Fedde and Michael Kopech and OF Tommy Pham, in return for Miguel, two prospects - Alexander Albertus and Jeral Perez - and a player to be named later. Finally, he was joining a team where he would have a chance to play regularly at the big league level.

Further Reading

• Mike DiGiovanna (Los Angeles Times): "Is rookie Miguel Vargas' dynamic bat worth making risky infield move? Dodgers think so", Yahoo! News, February 14, 2023. [1]
• Juan Toribio: "Vargas makes huge impact in MLB debut", mlb.com, August 4, 2022. [2]
• Juan Toribio: "Vargas puts himself in October outlook: Rookie's 3-RBI game continues trend that might land him on postseason roster", mlb.com, September 30, 2022. [3]
• Juan Toribio: "This rookie is living his father’s MLB dream", mlb.com, June 17, 2023. [4]

Related Sites

• Miguel Vargas on mlb.com