LVBP: Ildemaro Vargas Will Return To Cardenales de Lara This Winter; Jermaine Palacios Will Play for Aragua

The Cardenales de Lara management team met with team captain Ildemaro Vargas earlier this month.

Vargas has signed with Lara for the 2026-27 Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional season, and unlike most active MLB players who make cameo appearances in winter ball, the Arizona Diamondbacks infielder is the rare everyday MLBer who sticks around for much of the winter ball.

“I’m finishing up here and heading straight to Venezuela. I’m going to play with the Cardenales. They’re going to get the best out of me because they gave me the opportunity to develop as a player. I’m excited to help Lara succeed,” Vargas told Marcos Grunfeld, a Venezuelan journalist based in the United States.

He's played in the LVBP for Lara in each of the last six seasons and 10 of the last 11, missing only the 2019-20 campaign when Lara won the league title, and was a part of the Cardenales' title-winning club in 2025 that went to the Caribbean Series in Mexicali, Mexico.

Vargas will lead a team managed by Cesar Izturis, Sr., and will likely play a big role, anchoring the infield and the lineup.

In 12 seasons in the LVBP, Vargas has appeared in 443 games, playing 20 games with the Caribes de Anzoategui in 2012-13 before joining Lara in 2015-16. He has a slash line of .315/.383/.438 with 26 homers and 197 RBIs in his LVBP career.

With the Diamondbacks, Vargas has appeared in a career-high 116 games this season and played all four infield positions as well as left field and served as a designated hitter. He's batting .262/.306/.407 with nine homers and 63 RBIs, both of which are career highs.

Jermaine Palacios Will Play For Aragua - After a great season with the Bravos de Leon in Mexico's Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, Jermaine Palacios join the Tigres de Aragua for the winter.

Palacios split the 2025-26 LVBP season between Lara and Aragua, appearing in 24 total games and going 21-for-67 with four doubles and five RBIs. He's appeared in 187 career LVBP games with a .307/.373/.459 slash line, 14 homers and 88 RBIs.

With Leon this summer, the 29-year-old batted .297 with 10 home runs, 62 RBIs, 15 doubles and a. 788 OPS in 87 regular season games. He appeared in 30 career Major League games, all with the Minnesota Twins in 2022, batting .143 with two homers.

Aguilas del Zulia Sign Dominican P Jose Lopez - Three years removed from his one-game cameo in Major League Baseball with the Tampa Bay Rays, lefty Jose Lopez has signed with the Aguilas del Zulia, Movimiento Aguilcho reported on Instagram this week.

After leaving the Rays organization following the 2023 season, Lopez saw limited action with Hagerstown in the Atlantic League and Lake Country in the American Association in 2024. He didn't pitch in 2025, and has split 2026 between York and Charleston in the Atlantic League.

Leones Say Estadio Universitario Is Safe - Estadio Universitario in Caracas suffered no structural damage in the pair of earthquakes that struck Venezuela in June, the Leones del Caracas said in a tweet on June 21.

The ballpark, opened in 1952, is one of the most historic venues for baseball in Latin America, and has hosted home games of the Leones del Caracas from 1952 until the team moved to Estadio Monumental Simon Bolivar in 2023, as well as home games of the Tiburones de La Guaira from 1962 onward to the present.

A Senadores de Caracas home game was underway at the ballpark when the earthquakes hit, sending players and fans onto the field as the quakes, which both measured stronger than 7.0 on the Richter scale, shook the ground.