CHICAGO – Miguel Vargas has been on an absolute tear lately, and on Monday he received some league-wide recognition.
Vargas was named American League Player of the Week, becoming the first White Sox player to earn the award since Luis Robert Jr. in June of 2023. Cincinnati Reds outfielder Will Benson took home National League honor.
“It means a lot,” Vargas said before Monday’s game. “After what I’ve been through the last year and this year early, to accomplish this type of thing makes me very proud and to trust to keep going.”
“Very exciting news,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Well deserved. We’ve talked for a couple weeks now about how his adjustments have been paying off. And they’ve continued to sustain and lead to an unbelievable performance for Vargy, so super happy for him and just a great job by our hitting department, by Vargy for working extremely hard.”
From May 12 to 18, Vargas slashed .417/.423/1.000 with two doubles, four home runs, nine RBI and five runs.
The White Sox acquired Vargas from the Los Angeles Dodgers in a trade last season, and he batted just .104 in his first 42 games with the south siders. He got off to a slow start in 2025, too, posting a .429 OPS across his first 20 games.
But after making the slight adjustment of holding his hands higher in his batting stance, Vargas has taken off at the plate.
“It means all the world to me for sure,” Vargas said. “Sometimes we don’t get the result that we wanted and we get so sad about it. But when you’ve got weeks like this and you see a good process going on, you feel like you’re back. You’ve got to keep trusting what you’re doing and keep doing it.”
In 22 games since April 23, he’s slashing .350/.418/.638 with five doubles, six home runs, 15 RBI and 13 runs. After the first two-home run game of his career Friday against the Cubs, Vargas joked that he’s forgotten last season entirely.
“That’s something that I’ve been working on, being in the present and being where I am right now,” Vargas said. “It’s a process that I’ve been really enjoying and I want to keep my feet on the ground and keep going and having these type of moments.”
Vargas said he feels like he’s a better player in general now and that he has more power than previous seasons. After a big week, he’s not putting a cap on what he can accomplish.
“I think it can be better for sure. The sky is the limit for me,” Vargas said. “And I want to reach it the most that I can and just enjoy the ride.”
“Vargy has an image of himself as a player in this league,” Venable said. “I think it’s clear he’s a very confident guy and for now for the performance to be backing it up, I think you’re seeing him feel very comfortable in that performance and that success. And that’s who he believes he is, and he is. He’s been showing that he’s capable of performing at a really high level in this league.”
