Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Miguel Vargas Ascends, While McLean and Imanaga Drop

Most every week, Scott White will highlight some of the more notable changes to his rest-of-season rankings. You'll find said rankings here and are urged to bookmark them if you haven't already. There's no better resource for gauging player value throughout the long season.

Miguel Vargas was thought to be a failed prospect for the first four years of his career. The Dodgers had already given up on him, and if the White Sox had anyone better, they probably would have done the same. At age 26, he seemed like a finished product, and nobody was making a breakout case for him coming into the year.

But here we are in June, more than one-third of the way into the season, and he's the No. 1 third baseman in both points and categories scoring. He's not far off at first base either. That's not how I'm going to rank him for the rest of the season, but I think I have to acknowledge now that this version of Vargas has real staying power. I had been ranking him as if he might collapse tomorrow.

My hesitation to this point should be understandable, given the underwhelming track record and fear of getting hoodwinked again after falling pretty hard for Vargas in his rookie season. There's also the fact that, even now, he's batting only about .240. It's not a problem when he's pacing for 39 homers and 23 stolen bases, but how realistic are those numbers really?

Miguel Vargas

3B

CHW Chi. White Sox

• #20 • Age: 26

2026 Stats

AVG

.242

HR

15

SB

9

OBP

.368

OPS

.871

AB

219

I'll still take the under on both, but I'd be hard-pressed to say Vargas is lacking the skills to sustain what he's doing now. The biggest change from years past is his bat speed, which has improved by nearly 4 mph on average. His fast-swing rate, which measures how often he reaches the magical 75 mph threshold, has nearly quadrupled to 45 percent. He's learned to swing with real intent, which was the same trick that made George Springer a star again last year and offers assurance that Vargas' exit velocity gains will hold. Factor in his high pull-air rate, and yeah, it makes sense that his batted balls are sailing over the fence at a much higher rate. As for the steals, he has yet to get caught, and his 73rd percentile sprint speed suggests he should have been running like that all along.

I've gone ahead and moved Vargas into my top five at third base, no longer blindly trusting in  Manny Machado and Austin Riley to bounce back. Maikel Garcia and Bo Bichette are two other third basemen that Vargas has moved past. Man, the number of disappointments at that position almost makes it too easy.

Fittingly, he's only ninth at third base, but that still places him ahead of Rafael Devers , who had a better May than April but is still striking out too much for a second straight year, and Josh Naylor , whose track record isn't so special that he deserves eternal benefit of the doubt.

Here are some of the other highlights from my latest rankings sweep:

- My patience has reached its limits with Fernando Tatis Jr and Jazz Chisholm , who are still in my top five at second base but no longer Nos. 1 and 2 by default. Also sliding down is Ketel Marte , who has looked more like himself lately but is now nursing a couple of injuries that could impact his performance. In the long run, I think all three of those will be fine, but I'm not sure "fine" for them is still a clear upgrade over Brice Turang and Sal Stewart , who take over as my new Nos. 1 and 2 at the position. - I'm now all-in on Jacob Misiorowski , whose longstanding control problems seem over and done, and stuff seems second to none. He's up to fourth, behind just Paul Skenes , Chris Sale and Cristopher Sanchez , and I'm not sure any of them is clearly better. If I'm going there with Misiorowski, I might as well with Cameron Schlittler, too. He follows at five, just ahead of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Bryan Woo , who may be more projectable but aren't quite as dominant. - Before Schlittler was attached to Misiorowski, he was attached to Nolan McLean , climbing into the top 12 with him. But McLean has suddenly hit a wall here in his second season, his ERA rising from 2.92 to 4.21 in his last three starts. He walked five in his latest one, which gets to the crux of the problem: Hitters have learned to lay off his secondaries, which are intended as chase pitches, and are keying in on his fastball in the zone. I'm hopeful he'll adjust back and begin landing enough of those secondaries for strikes to restore equilibrium, but it's really unclear where he should rank right now. I've settled on the 18th. - When a starting pitcher with relief pitcher eligibility emerges as a true lineup fixture with the potential for an ace outcome every time he takes the bump, it's hard to keep him out of the top spot in points leagues, where starting pitchers frequently outshine closers purely on innings accumulation. We've reached that point with Braxton Ashcraft , a ground-ball pitcher with top-notch bat-missing skills who has adopted a workhorse mentality only a year after splitting his time between the rotation and bullpen. I have to keep him behind Mason Miller , at least, but he's now my No. 2 reliever in Head-to-Head points leagues (not to mention a top 20 starting pitcher). - Speaking of starting pitchers with relief pitcher eligibility, Ben Brown has made a smooth transition to the Cubs rotation, extending to five innings, then six, then seven, all in his last three starts. His 1.92 ERA is obviously too good to be true, but he has an even better ground-ball rate than Ashcraft and has actually seen his swinging-strike rate improve with his move to the rotation. He's up to 58th for me, which sounds more disrespectful than it actually is, seeing as he's ahead of Bryce Elder , Spencer Arrighetti and Taj Bradley . - I clearly jumped the gun by moving Shota Imanaga into my top 15 at starting pitcher, seeing as his ERA has climbed from 2.32 to 4.37 in his past three starts. In my defense, his velocity was back to where it was in 2024, when he was a top 10 starting pitcher with a 2.91 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 9.0 K/9, and he was off to that same sort of start. But his vulnerability to the long ball -- a well-known deficiency by now -- means you can never feel too comfortable with him. He drops down to 38th. - Spencer Steer is hitting the ball harder and pulling it more, which is a recipe for damage. His Baseball Savant page is redder than it's ever been, and while I'm naturally skeptical of it as a big believer in track record, he's been of some use in Fantasy even prior to this year. With as weak as the outfield is shaping up to be, I had a pretty easy time getting him in my top 36. Joining him there, by the way, are Ryan O'Hearn , who's newly off the IL, and J.J. Bleday , whose breakthrough looks pretty legitimate to me. They're all ahead of Chase DeLauter and Brandon Nimmo , a couple of hot starters who've cooled all the way down. - With four home runs in his past five games, Dillon Dingler is now up to 14 on the year, tied for third-most among catchers. That's a pretty good indicator that he belongs in the top 10 at the position, overtaking Samuel Basallo and Will Smith . And believe it or not, his actual stats are running well below his expected stats, most notably the .241 batting average as compared to the .294 xBA. - Riley O'Brien had a 0.00 ERA in his first 13 appearances this year, which moved him into my top 10 at relief pitcher. He has a 7.71 ERA in his past 14 appearances, which has dropped him to 18th. Between JoJo Romero and George Soriano , the Cardinals have other places they can turn if he continues to struggle. - Hunter Brown , who has been out since March 31 with a strained shoulder, has looked great in his two rehab starts and may only need a couple more. I've moved him back into my top 12 at starting pitcher. - Re-entering the top 12 at relief pitcher are Josh Hader , who's back from his own IL stint and appeared to be right as rain in securing his first save Wednesday, and Trevor Megill , who loudly announced his return to closing duties with three saves in the final week of May. Judging by his 1.51 FIP, he should have never lost the gig. - Kyle Harrison recorded his third double-digit strikeout game last time out and continues to thrive on just two pitches and the Brewers ' developmental know-how. He jumps into my top 24, ranking ahead of Michael King and George Kirby . - Curtis Mead has climbed into my top 20 at third base, ahead of Matt Chapman and Alec Bohm , and,in points leagues, also Josh Jung and Kazuma Okamoto . I'm not sure how stable he is in a starting role yet, which is why I'm holding a little something back, but I like what I see.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/fantasy-baseball-rankings-movers-miguel-vargas-joins-third-base-elite/)._