the almost daily dodger - miguel vargas

back in 1985, i remember my lcs charging more than common prices for german rivera's topps rookie card. it was solely because rivera was a dodger rookie, and the dodgers had been pretty good at churning out young players over the previous few seasons.

i sort of feel that way about miguel vargas. there seemed to be a lot of hype around his cards last year (here's his 2023 topps stadium club card that has sat in my scanned folder for a few months)

he had a cup of coffee with the dodgers in 2022, but didn't do a lot. still, he was a dodger rookie in 2023 and i found some of his cards harder to come by. maybe i am off base and there wasn't a premium on his cards last year, or maybe it was all cards with the "rc" logo.

at any rate, vargas is now with the white sox after being included in the trade for michael kopech. i really like the trade as the dodger bullpen hasn't been very good and neither has vargas. he's still only 24, but through his first few games with the chisox he's well below replacement player levels, and had only 3 hits in his first 36 at bats for his new team. kopech, meanwhile, has struck out ten of the first 21 batters he’s faced as a dodger and could be the arm that the bullpen was missing, and i do believe the dodgers intend to keep him in a reliever role.

i do hope vargas does well and perhaps, like michael busch, the dodgers did him a favor by trading him somewhere where he can play consistently. only time will tell.