Vargas became the first Sox player to earn the title since 2023
MLB announced its Players of the Week for May 12, with White Sox infielder Miguel Vargas taking home AL honors after hitting .417 with four longballs and nine driven in against the Reds and Cubs. Cincinnati outfielder Will Benson won the award on the NL side. Vargas is the first Sox player to win the distinction since Luis Robert Jr. in June 2023, with other recent honorees including Johnny Cueto, José Abreu, and, of course, Yermín Mercedes.
Vargas posted his best week as a member of the South Siders, hitting .417/.423/1.000 and notching four multi-hit games, including his first career multi-homer effort in Friday’s loss to the Cubs. It’s an achievement that reflects an encouraging upward trajectory for Vargas, who’s come to life over the last month after a disappointing start to his Chicago tenure.
In late April, Vargas implemented a much-publicized swing change that saw him raise his hands and move them back in his stance, causing him to wrap his bat around his head just a little bit as he loads up to swing, rather than having it almost straight up in the air, as seen in the first picture here.
The result is that Vargas has been teeing off on opposing pitchers’ fastballs after struggling deeply against them for most of his career to this point. The heightened hands and more exaggerated bat wrap appear to be helping him get his swing path on the same plane as the ball and better time it up, leading to all-around better contact. After whiffing on 29% of his swings against four-seamers through April 20, he’s cut that number to 12% since. Before, pitchers were beating him with fastballs so severely that he didn’t stand a chance against anything else. When pitchers can’t beat him like that, it allows him to control the strike zone, so to speak, and showcase the combination of contact ability and solid power that made him a top prospect as recently as 2023.