LOS ANGELES \u2014 Chicago White Sox infielder Miguel Vargas caught up with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and general manager Brandon Gomes near home plate before Tuesday\u2019s game at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n
There were laughs and hugs. And when the conversation wrapped up, Vargas left with a box holding his 2024 World Series championship ring.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s always good to have that type of reward,\u201d Vargas said afterward. \u201cHappy to see my old teammates and to be back here at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of players dream about something like this. I\u2019m very happy to have one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vargas played in 30 games for the Dodgers last season before being traded to the Sox in a three-team deal that also included the St. Louis Cardinals. Tuesday\u2019s game marked his return to the Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good (to return),\u201d he said. \u201cDodger Stadium is one of the best places for a baseball game. One of the best (memories) was to see Albert Pujols hit his 700th home run (on Sept. 23, 2022). \u2026 To be back here is always special.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Vargas came up through the Dodgers organization after signing as an international free agent in September 2017. He made his major-league debut in 2022 and spent portions of three seasons with the Dodgers before being traded to the Sox on July 29, 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Sox sent pitcher Michael Kopech to the Dodgers and outfielder Tommy Pham and pitcher Erick Fedde to the St. Louis Cardinals in the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the best thing to happen to me and my career, to come to this organization and to have the opportunity to play every single day,\u201d Vargas said. \u201cComing into this year, I understand that a little bit more, and I\u2019m happy with everything I\u2019ve been doing this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI just really want to focus on what I have now. I learned from the past and that\u2019s what got me here now.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Vargas already has exceeded career highs in home runs (10), RBIs (34), hits (68), doubles (20) and runs (41). Tuesday\u2019s game was his 82nd of the season, surpassing his previous high of 81 with the Dodgers in 2023.<\/p>\n He was tied for seventh in the American League in doubles entering Wednesday.<\/p>\n Vargas initially struggled after the trade, going 14-for-135 (.104) in 42 games with the Sox in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously last year wasn\u2019t good,\u201d he said. \u201cThis year, feeling I\u2019m in a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n The third baseman\/first baseman made adjustments at the plate<\/a> in April, including starting his hands from a slightly higher position, and found immediate success. That was on full display May 12-18, when he went 10-for-24 (.417) with two doubles, four home runs, nine RBIs and five runs in six road games against the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n That stretch included a three-run home run in extra innings in a 5-1 victory May 13<\/a> against the Reds at Great American Ball Park and a two-homer game May 16<\/a> in a 13-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n The production earned Vargas American League Player of the Week honors<\/a> for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n Related Articles<\/p>\n \u201cThe organization, myself and (Vargas) have a vision about the kind of player that he can be,\u201d manager Will Venable said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cHe\u2019s had to work really hard to get there. To see that in the early part of this year where he\u2019s worked through some adjustments, made those adjustments and stuck with them and gotten results is really cool to see.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a really good player and we\u2019re watching him become that on a daily basis here.\u201d<\/p>\n Vargas was batting .243 after a two-hit day June 22 in Toronto<\/a> that featured a go-ahead two-run double in the eighth inning. But he has only one hit since, entering Wednesday in a 1-for-25 funk over his last seven games. His average was down to .226 after going 0-for-4 in Tuesday\u2019s 6-1 loss<\/a> to the Dodgers.<\/p>\n He has shown the ability to rebound. Part of Venable\u2019s vision for Vargas is being able to adapt.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s more consistency to his power game, there\u2019s more he can do defensively, there\u2019s a lot of ways he can continue to impact a game and I think he\u2019s going to,\u201d Venable said. \u201cHe\u2019s a 25-year-old guy that understands the game and works extremely hard. I anticipate his development is not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Chicago White Sox infielder Miguel Vargas caught up with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[7268,5,2056,138,24,49,2561,50,1560,2196,133,57,1149,4154,4,67,8,282,396,2562,998],"class_list":{"0":"post-147188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-albert-pujols","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-brandon-gomes","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-cubs","13":"tag-chicago-white-sox","14":"tag-chicagowhitesox","15":"tag-cincinnati-reds","16":"tag-dave-roberts","17":"tag-dodger-stadium","18":"tag-erick-fedde","19":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","20":"tag-michael-kopech","21":"tag-miguel-vargas","22":"tag-mlb","23":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","24":"tag-tommy-pham","25":"tag-toronto","26":"tag-white-sox","27":"tag-whitesox","28":"tag-will-venable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114785133797197735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}