With Memorial Day in the rearview mirror, the calendar will soon turn to June, the month in which the season officially hits the halfway point. That means that the season isn’t yet in the homestretch, but samples are large enough that they can no longer be dismissed. In today’s edition, I am taking a hard look at two players that haven’t been relevant in shallower fantasy leagues in years. One of them is a younger guy with some prospect pedigree who seems to finally be putting it all together while the other is a veteran who’s struggled with health and performance for the better half of this decade. As a reminder, each player I examine will be sorted into one of the following categories: “not legit,” “probably not legit,” “too early to tell,” “possibly legit,” and “legit.” All stats are through the games of Monday, May 25.
Miguel Vargas, 1B/3B, CHW
This month: 91 PA, .273/.374/.558 (160 wRC+), 15 R, 6 HR, 16 RBI, 3 SB
2026: 225 PA, .239./.369/.489 (142 wRC+), 37 R, 12 HR, 31 RBI, 8 SB
A highly-touted prospect whom the White Sox acquired from the Dodgers in 2024, Vargas finally tasted MLB success for the first time in 2025 after three poor partial seasons in the big leagues. But the breakout has come this year, as Vargas was only league average at the dish (101 wRC+) in ’25 yet now finds himself on a 35 HR, 25 SB pace. His emergence, along with the signing of Munetaka Murakami, has taken the White Sox offense from a bottom five to top half unit.
In terms of Vargas’ profile at the plate, he has always had great swing decisions, chasing at a below-average rate while being plenty aggressive in the zone. He’s continued that this season, slightly improving his already solid chase rate and adding a ton of bat speed. His average swing speed has jumped from 70.6 MPH to 73.9 MPH, bringing him up to the 72nd percentile from the 25th. There haven’t been any meaningful changes in Vargas’ swing tilt, attack angle, attack direction, or swing length, which tells me that he’s just added explosiveness rather than made a wholesale swing change. The bat speed has translated into an elite 15.4% barrel rate (90th percentile) and a five percentage point jump in his hard-hit rate. Vargas has always been good at pulling the ball in the air, so he’s having no trouble converting this loud contact into long balls.
Verdict: Legit. After some fits and starts during his first couple seasons as a big leaguer, Vargas is kicking it into high gear, The lack of batting average upside might keep him from ever becoming an elite option at the hot corner, but I will take this power-speed blend in an improving White Sox offense any day of the week. The marked improvement in his bat speed and batted ball quality give me faith that the strong surface-level stats are here to stay. While speed is always hard to predict, not being caught in eight attempts is a good way to earn the green light.
Eduardo Rodriguez, SP, ARI
Last four starts (since 5/5): 27.2 IP, 2 W, 21 Ks, 1.30 ERA, 0.94 WHIP
2026: 60.1 IP (10 GS), 4 W, 43 Ks, 2.24 ERA, 1.19 WHIP
Rodriguez has dazzled as of late, letting up only four runs in the entire month of May with three quality starts, including two scoreless outings of seven innings. The matchups that Rodriguez has had this month bear mentioning. It’s been three home starts against the Mets, Pirates, and Rockies along with a start in Coors Field. Though Coors is never an easy place to pitch, all three of these offenses rank 20th or worse against lefties, with Colorado easily dead last at a 69 wRC+. To his credit, Rodriguez didn’t allow any earned runs in his first two starts of the season against the Dodgers and Atlanta, so they haven’t all been softballs.
From a luck perspective, Rodriguez has been running hot. He’s working with a BABIP (.254) that is 50 points below his career .304 rate and is stranding 84.3% of runners, well above his 73.9% career mark. For context, that rate would have tied him for second last year among qualified starters with Garrett Crochet. Each of the top six arms on that list had a strikeout rate over 24%, and all but Gavin Williams were over 28%. Getting whiffs is a skill that typically correlates with stranding runners, and Rodriguez does not have that ability. His career swinging strike rate is roughly average for a starting pitcher, but this year’s 8.5% mark is in the bottom 20% of the league.
Verdict: Not legit. I am on opposite ends of the spectrum this week in terms of my faith in these two players to sustain their strong performances. There is no discernible difference in the skills Rodriguez is displaying now compared to the last two seasons, in which he posted an ERA north of 5.00 and a WHIP above 1.50 over about 200 IP. Aside from cutting out a slider that he only threw 5% of the time in 2025 and replacing it with increased change-up usage, there’s also nothing different about the arsenal. This year, Rodriguez is actually getting fewer swings and misses and strikeouts with similar batted ball quality. That is not a recipe for success, and I expect regression to come swiftly. If it hasn’t happened against the Giants the night prior to this article’s publication, next week’s two starts against the Dodgers and Nationals seems like a safe bet.
