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White Sox breakout star Miguel Vargas is making his case for the All-Star game

Chicago White Sox infielder Miguel Vargas could land a spot on the AL All-Star team roster after remarkable season turnaround.
ByNoah Phalen|
May 28, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Chicago White Sox first baseman Miguel Vargas (20) reacts during the game against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Boland-Imagn Images
May 28, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Chicago White Sox first baseman Miguel Vargas (20) reacts during the game against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Boland-Imagn Images | Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

The emergence of infielder Miguel Vargas has been one of the big stories of the 2025 season for the Chicago White Sox.

If you’d read that sentence on April 22nd of this year, you would have thought I’d lost my mind. Vargas got off to an abysmal start in 2025 after a miserable end to the 2024 season, batting .138 with a .438 OPS over his first 22 games.

A mechanical adjustment has since turned his season around, and now, the 25-year-old is making his case for the Midsummer Classic in Atlanta. 

The White Sox need a representative

Despite their poor record, the White Sox will still send at least one representative to the MLB All-Star Game, and it’s still up in the air who the representative(s) will be.

Veteran outfielder Mike Tauchman was third in the AL voting for designated hitters after the first update, but he’s fallen all the way to 7th in the latest update. A groin injury has put Tauchman's availability in question. It's unlikely he'll represent the White Sox. 

Rookie start pitcher Shane Smith’s stellar start could make him the first ever Rule 5 pitcher to make the All-Star Game in his rookie season, but a couple recent rough outings have potentially cast some doubt on his candidacy. Smith has allowed 10 earned runs over 6.1 innings during his lat two outings.

Chase Meidroth has proven himself to have elite on-base ability and shown flashes of being a top-tier table setter, but a recent slump has dipped his overall numbers, and it may not hold up to others around the league any longer. 

Miguel Vargas is a great choice

The next logical candidate to represent the White Sox may be Miguel Vargas. Vargas hit go-ahead double on Sunday that led to the White Sox first series win in Toronto since 2019, and his season-long OPS now sits at .751.

Vargas’s WRC+ is now 111, meaning it is 11% above league average, and his 1.2 fWAR is the most among White Sox position players. Vargas also leads the team in home runs (10), RBIs (34), doubles (20), Hits, and slugging percentage (.432).

Defensively, Vargas has played both third base and first base this season, and there has been significant improvement in that area of his game. Though not all the metrics agree, Vargas has been more competent at third, and he ranks among the top few names in the league in a small sample size at first base. 

 In my opinion, if the White Sox are going to have a position player All-Star, the choice is obvious. 

All of these statistics are remarkable considering where Vargas was as recently as April 22nd of this year. It's easier to capture how good he has been looking at his numbers since making a simple change. By raising his hand position in his stance, Vargas gas changed the course of his career

A former Top 100 prospect, Vargas has always possessed the talent, but had struggled to put it together before now. With a career revival at the plate, and a potential long-term home at first base, Vargas has turned into the player the White Sox believed he could be when they traded for him last season, and he could be rewarded with a trip to Atlanta.

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