Dodgers’ Miguel Vargas masters the art of the walk
Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Miguel Vargas has mastered the art of drawing a walk, showing remarkable patience in a game ever-more focused on hurrying up.
We live in intemperate times. Immediacy is all around us. Millennials have an attention span of only 12 seconds on average, and Gen Z have outdone them by giving you only four seconds of their time. Get to the point, and now.
Baseball has had to bow to this pressure, moving the game along at breakneck speed, sacrificing strategy on the altar of physicality. “Don’t think. Act!” seems to be the message everywhere.
In this world where the here and now is all that matters, exercising patience has become an extreme sport, an act of defiance that has become a lost art.
The literary industry is awash with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books offering the sage advice to not lose your cool. Youtube gives us innumerable life coaches and tutorials on “mindfulness”, but the truth is that this virtue is increasingly scarce in the world we inhabit.
Life has a way of teaching us patience, often against our own will. In the case of Miguel Vargas, it was brought to him via a broken finger.
At the end of February, just as MLB Spring Training got underway, the Cuban prospect suffered a fracture on his right little finger.
In an effort to make his rehab go as smoothly as possible, the Dodgers gave him instructions to take all pitches during his at-bats. They needed him to see the pitches, but wanted to take no chances on that finger. “No matter what,” they told him, “do not swing the bat.”
Unintended consequences
Through the pre-season, something strange happened. Vargas drew nine walks and at one point sported a .500 on-base percentage. And all without ever swinging the bat.
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Now as the season has gotten underway, Vargas is making use of that newly acquired attribute. While the finger is healed and there are no restrictions on his batting, he has continued to show remarkable patience at the plate, notching up 13 walks in the last two weeks. That is one more than the Mets’ Brandon Nimmo and sees Vargas leading the league in free passes.
His strikeout to walk ratio? 13-7.
During Wednesday night’s 10-5 romp over the San Francisco Giants, Vargas saw 30 pitches in five plate appearances, the most of any hitter in MLB.
Who is Miguel Vargas?
The Cuban infielder signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as an international free agent back in September 2017. He spent his first professional season in 2018 with the Arizona League Dodgers, Ogden Raptors, and Great Lakes Loons.
Vargas made his MLB debut last year after an impressive season with Triple-A Oklahoma City that saw him participate in the 2022 Futures Game at Dodger Stadium.
He has appeared in 11 Dodgers games this season, with nine in the starting lineup. His average is a respectable, if not eye-catching .200. But his on-base percentage is a truly remarkable .475.
Vargas has seen time at second base this season, but has also served as short stop.
