Chicago White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas had his baseball career flipped upside down when he was acquired in a trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024.
He went from the best team in baseball to the worst. That season, the White Sox set a Modern Era (1901) record with 121 losses. The Dodgers, of course, were crowned World Series champions, the first of back-to-back titles.
Vargas had a solid year in 2025, hitting .234/.316/.401 with 16 home runs and a 100 OPS+, exactly league-average production. But there appeared to be more in the tank.
Now, he’s earned his first All-Star selection with a White Sox club that currently holds a one-game lead in the AL Central. Vargas’ OPS+ is 138 through 88 games, and he’s already set career highs in homers (20) and bWAR (3.3) in his age-26 season.
And the journey to get here has not been smooth. Like most Cuban-born players in MLB, he defected from his home country in hopes of signing a professional baseball contract. The Dodgers made that dream a reality in 2017.
According to research from international baseball reporter Francys Romero, Vargas is the first Cuban-born third baseman to be selected to an All-Star Game since Hall of Famer Tony Perez in 1970.
Perez, a seven-time All-Star with the Cincinnati Reds, also earned selections from 1967 through 1969. Before him, fellow Hall of Famer Minnie Minoso was the last to accomplish the feat, doing so in 1948 with the New York Cubans in the Negro Leagues.
“I’m a big fan of Vargy, and I think it really starts with the kind of guy he is,” White Sox manager Will Venable told MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. “The things that he does in the clubhouse, on the field for us, really even before you start talking about the excellent performance that he’s been able to really dial in and tap into this year. He is as good as anybody to represent this club and what we’re about.”
That’s not all. Vargas, who was born in La Habana, is the first White Sox third baseman to make an All-Star team since Joe Crede in 2008.
The White Sox last made a postseason appearance in 2021, losing in four games to the Houston Astros in the ALDS. Remarkably, the organization has made just 11 trips to the playoffs dating back to 1901.
If Chicago makes a 12th trip this fall, Vargas is likely to play a significant role in its resurgence after a few brutal years.
Photo: Chicago White Sox’s Miguel Vargas celebrates in the dugout after hitting a home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians in Cleveland, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
