Miguel Vargas mammoth home run highlights Dodgers win

Miguel Vargas is one of the most coveted prospects in the Dodgers system. He was named the Branch Rickey Award winner as the organization’s minor league position player of the year, and this year the third baseman has been named on four national top-100 prospect lists.

The 22-year-old non-roster invitee started at first base on Wednesday against Cleveland, and in the second inning took Shane Bieber deep for a three-run home run.

“That’s rocketed to left. Oh, what a shot,” Charley Steiner called on SportsNet LA. “Miguel Vargas. Wow!”

There’s no publicly-available Statcast information from Camelback Ranch, but the shot by Vargas was rocketed over the concourse in left field. Vargas was happy to offer his assessment of the distance.

Edwin Ríos had a similar thought.

Vargas hit .319/.380/.526 with 23 home runs and 27 doubles between High-A and Double-A in 2021, including a franchise-record hitting streak with Great Lakes before getting promoted to Tulsa. The bulk of his starts last year (84) came at third base, but he also saw time at second base (16 starts) and first base (nine starts).

He’s played in five of the six spring training games for the Dodgers so far, including Wednesday’s start at first base. He’s also played three games at third base.

Baseball Prospectus had Vargas as the highest-ranked Dodgers prospect, at No. 36 overall. Baseball America wasn’t too far off, tabbing Vargas the 40th-best prospect in MLB and second-best on the team behind catcher Diego Cartaya.

Manager Dave Roberts liked what he’s seen of Vargas so far.

After Wednesday’s game, Vargas was one of 16 Dodgers sent to minor league camp, trimming the big league side to 51 players.