Miguel Vargas was ranked the top Los Angeles Dodgers prospect for the 2022 season by Baseball Prospectus. Vargas supplants Josiah Gray, who held the honor last year before being traded to the Washington Nationals in the blockbuster that netted Max Scherzer and Trea Turner.
After Vargas, the Dodgers’ top 10 prospects list is rounded out by Diego Cartaya (No. 2), Bobby Miller, Andy Pages, Ryan Pepiot, Michael Busch, Maddux Bruns, Jorbit Vivas, Eddys Leonard and Andre Jackson.
Vargas, who is Baseball Prospectus’ No. 36 overall prospect heading into the 2022 season, batted .314/.366/.532 with 11 doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 16 RBI over 47 games with High-A Great Lakes. He was named the Dodgers’ 2021 Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year.
Cartaya enjoyed an excellent, albeit injury-shortened 2021 season with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga in which he hit .298/.409/.614 with 10 home runs and a 157 wRC+ in 31 games.
Miller went 2-2 with a 1.91 ERA over 14 games (11 starts) for the Loons, then struggled a bit with Double-A Tulsa as he pitched to a 4.82 ERA in three starts.
Pages, who is considered one of the Dodgers’ top power bats in the Minors, hit .265/.394/.539 with 25 doubles, 31 home runs and 88 RBI in 120 games with the Loons.
Pepiot posted a 3-4 record with a 2.87 ERA in 15 games (13 starts) with the Drillers before earning a promotion to Triple-A Oklahoma City. That came with a bit of a learning curve as he went 2-5 with a 7.13 ERA and 1.80 WHIP in 11 appearances (nine starts).
Busch, in his second professional season in the Dodgers organization, batted .267/.386/.484 with 27 doubles, 20 home runs and 67 RBI over 107 games with the Drillers.
Bruns, who was selected with the No. 29 pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, allowed nine runs in four appearances for the Dodgers’ Rookie-level affiliate.
Vivas split the 2021 season with the Quakes and Loons, hitting .312/.396/.496 with 26 doubles, 14 home runs and 87 RBI over 477 plate appearances (106 games).
Leonard combined to bat .296/.390/.539 with 29 doubles and 22 home runs for Rancho Cucamonga and Great Lakes. He’s played second base, third base, shortstop and center field thus far in the Minors.
Jackson began his 2021 campaign with the Drillers and excelled to the tune of a 3-2 record with a 3.27 ERA over 15 games en route to making an appearance in the annual Futures Game. He later earned a promotion to the Dodgers’ top affiliate and even saw time at the Major League level.
Miller and Vargas among Dodgers prospects providing instruction at youth winter camp
The Dodgers are hosting their annual youth winter camp series at Dodger Stadium throughout the month of January, with several of the organization’s prospects and staff members from the team’s Training Academy participating.
Instruction will be provided by the Dodgers Training Academy, plus 22 Dodgers prospects, including Miller, Vargas, Busch and Knack, among others.
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