On January 21, 2026, Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat were traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. This list, and their place on it, was compiled back in late-November. For continuity’s sake, I decided upon including Williams and Sproat’s profile, but for all intents and purposes, every player on our list below the pair can be considered to have moved up, with the addition of prospects 26 and 27 effectively becoming 24 and 25.

Marco Vargas was signed by the Miami Marlins on May 25, 2022, the day before his 17th birthday, agreeing to terms in exchange for a $17,500 signing bonus. Three weeks later, the Chihuahua, Mexico native was assigned to the Dominican Summer League, where he appeared in 53 games for the DSL Miami squad. Vargas won team MVP honors, hitting .319/.421/.456 with 13 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs, 14 stolen bases in 20 attempts, and 35 walks to 32 strikeouts. He was sent stateside for the 2023 season and was assigned to the FCL Marlins, Miami’s Florida Complex League team. Appearing in 33 games for them, the infielder hit .283/.457/.442 with 11 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs, 8 stolen bases in 10 attempts, and 38 walks to 22 strikeouts.

Overview

Name: Marco Vargas
Position: INF
Born: 05/14/2005 (Age 21 season in 2026)
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 170 lbs.
Bats/Throws: L/R
Acquired: Trade (July 28, 2023: Traded by the Miami Marlins with Ronald Hernandez to the New York Mets for David Robertson)

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2025 Stats: 13 G, 44 AB, .409/.527/.545, 18 H, 3 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 10 BB, 7 K, 2/3 SB, .472 BABIP (Single-A) / 95 G, 355 AB, .239/.328/.296, 85 H, 9 2B, 4 3B, 1 HR, 48 BB, 82 K, 38/45 SB, .304 BABIP (High-A)

On July 28, 2023, Florida packaged Vargas along with catcher Ronald Hernandez and traded them the Mets in exchange for veteran reliever David Robertson. Vargas remained in the FCL, now with the FCL Mets, and hit .234/.368/.298 in 15 games with them, knocking 3 more doubles, stealing 2 more bases, and drawing 10 walks to 9 strikeouts. At the end of August, he was promoted to Single-A St. Lucie and appeared in 6 games for them, going 8-26 with no extra base hits, 2 stolen bases in 5 attempts, and drawing 5 walks to 7 strikeouts. All in all, he spent the majority of his season in the Florida Complex League and hit an outstanding .269/.431/.398 in 49 games for the FCL Marlins and FCL Mets, with 14 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs, 10 stolen bases in 12 attempts, and 48 walks to 33 strikeouts

That winter, he was ranked 8th on the 2024 Amazin Avenue’ Top 25 Prospect list. He began the year with St. Lucie got only got sporadic playing time in April thanks to an injury. He was placed on the injured list at the end of the month and activated after the minimum seven days. He got into a handful of games and was placed back on the injured list. In total, he was placed on the injured list four different times throughout the year, it later being revealed that he was dealing with wrist tendonitis. All in all, he only played 37 games in 2024, most coming during a stretch of play in May and in August/September and hit.208/.369/.239 with 4 doubles, 0 triples, 0 home runs, 13 stolen bases in 15 attempts, and 34 walks to 38 strikeouts.

That winter, he was ranked 8th on the 2024 Amazin Avenue’ Top 25 Prospect list. He began the year with St. Lucie but only got sporadic playing time in April thanks to an injury. He was placed on the injured list at the end of the month and activated after the minimum seven days. He got into a handful of games and was placed back on the injured list. In total, he was placed on the injured list four different times throughout the year, it later being revealed that he was dealing with wrist tendonitis. All in all, he only played 37 games in 2024, most coming during a stretch of play in May and in August/September and hit.208/.369/.239 with 4 doubles, 0 triples, 0 home runs, 13 stolen bases in 15 attempts, and 34 walks to 38 strikeouts.

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The infielder was healthier in 2025, but he was unable to leverage his health into a stand-out season. Things began well for the 20-year-old, as he hit .409/.527/.545 for St. Lucie in 13 games in early-and-mid-April, but his production took a hit when he was promoted to High-A Brooklyn at the end of the month. Playing in a stadium rough on left-handed hitters, Vargas appeared in 95 games for the Cyclones, Vargas hit .239/.328/.296 with 9 doubles, 4 triples, 1 home run, 38 stolen bases in 45 attempts, and drew 48 walks to 82 strikeouts.

The 5’11”, 170-pound Vargas stands tall at the plate, holding his hands high at the eyes and angling his bat head at 10:30. Between 2024 and 2025, the organization had Vargas close up a little bit to eliminate some movement in his load, and raise the angle of his bat, as to not wrap it behind his head too much. He swings with a slight leg kick and has a quick, balanced, compact stroke from the left-side. Highlighted by his 43.0% Swing% and 81.4% Contact%, both better than the MLB average, Vargas is a selective hitter and makes a lot of contact. While not Luis Arraez by any means, his 19.2 K% and 8% SwStr% were both above-average as well.

When Vargas puts a ball in play, he uses the entire field, pulling the ball at a 36.9% rate in 2025, going back up the middle at a 24.2% rate, and going to the opposite field at a 38.9% rate; his pulled ball percentage and opposite field percentage had a change of roughly 10% during his time in Brooklyn as compared to his time in St. Lucie, 45.9%-29.7% to 35.7%-40.1%, highlighting how Maimonides Park can be extremely suboptimal for left-handed hitters.

Vargas does not hit the ball in the air much, posting a 24.9% line drive rate, 43.0% ground ball rate, and 32.0% flyball rate. In limited at-bats in 2024 and 2025 at St. Lucie, where publicly available statcast data exists, he maintained an 88.1 and 90.1 MPH average exit velocity, with a high-water mark of 103.9 MPH in 2024 and 106.5 MPH in 2025. While those averages would put him in the 73th and 87th percentiles in Low-A baseball in 2024 and 2025, respectively, his max exit velocity readings only put him in the 16th percentile for the 2024 season and 31st for the 2025 season.

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While the infielder may not excel necessarily at doing damage himself, his greatest strength is setting up others to do damage. His 12.5% cumulative BB% would have placed him in the top in the Florida State League as well as the South Atlantic League. He rarely swings at questionable pitches and may be a bit too passive at times, electing to let potentially hittable pitches pass him by and settling for the ball instead of chancing on putting the ball in play.

While possessing fringe-average speed, Vargas has shown good basestealing instincts over the course of his professional career. In 2024, he stole 13 bases in 1t attempts in 37 games and in 2025, he stole a cumulative total of 40 bases in 48 attempts in 108 games. He reads pitchers well and is an opportunistic runner, shrewdly choosing his spots.

Defensively, Vargas has played defense all over the infield over the course of his young career, splitting second base and shortstop almost equally. In 2024, he played a total of 52.2 innings at third base, 114.2 innings at second base, and 113.1 at shortstop and in 2025, he played 426.2 innings at second base and 387.2 at short.

While on the smaller side, Vargas is not particularly quick-twitch athletic; he does not have a quick first step nor is he particularly rangy or agile. He will make the routine plays and catch most balls hit to him at short but will be pressed to make more difficult plays. Coupled with his fringe-average arm, and the infielder is far better suited at second base than he is at shortstop in the long run.

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2026 Mets Top 25 Prospect List

1) Nolan McLean
2) Carson Benge
3) Jonah Tong
4) Jett Williams*
5) Brandon Sproat*
6) A.J. Ewing
7) Jacob Reimer
8) Ryan Clifford
9) Will Watson
10) Jack Wenninger
11) Mitch Voit
12) Jonathan Santucci
13) Elian Peña
14) Zach Thornton
15) Nick Morabito
16) R.J. Gordon
17) Chris Suero
18) Dylan Ross
19) Ryan Lambert
20) Antonio Jimenez
21) Edward Lantigua
22) Eli Serrano III
23) Randy Guzman
24) Daiverson Gutierrez
25) Boston Baro
26) Marco Vargas