Dodgers' Second-Generation Star Got Help From Famous Father

J.P. Hoornstra | May 23, 2024

Jul 6, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Mookie Betts (50) second baseman Miguel Vargas (17) and first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) return following the top of the eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Regardless of your professional aspirations, it rarely hurts to have someone in your family whose experience you can lean on in times of trouble.

For one young Dodgers player, that's never been more true than it was in the last year.

Miguel Vargas returned to the majors on May 17 after a long time in the baseball wilderness. He was demoted to Triple-A in June 2023 and never returned to the majors last year, as the Dodgers opted to give the second base position to veterans Kiké Hernandez and Amed Rosario in preparation for a playoff run.

Despite a strong spring training, Vargas returned to Triple-A to start the 2024 season — this time as a left fielder — and didn't get his first call-up until last week. In the meantime, Vargas told Doug Padilla of the Southern California News Group that he leaned on his famous father for support and advice.

Lazaro Vargas is a national hero in Cuba. He led the country to gold medals in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Games. He even had a 15-cent postage stamp commissioned for him in 2003, after batting .322 in an 872-game career in his native country.

“One hundred percent I have been talking to him a lot about that process I’ve been through from last year and this year,” Miguel Vargas told Padilla. “Being able to talk to him really helped me a lot.”

The elder and younger Vargas worked out together over the winter in Miami. And while his father never got a chance to try his hand in Major League Baseball because of the restrictions on Cuban players entering and working the U.S., the younger Vargas conceded he is motivated to help his father live out his MLB dreams.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do,” Miguel Vargas said. “I’m trying to put his name out there and try to show that one day he was good. When I was younger, people would go out to the field to watch him play and when we would go to dinner or something, everybody would say hi to him. It was kind of cool.”

Vargas, 24, is 1 for 7 with a single through his first three games with the Dodgers this season.