Miguel Vargas, Hyun-Il Choi earn Dodgers’ top minor league honors

(Photo by Rich Crimi/Tulsa Drillers)

by Rowan Kavner

The Dodgers named infielder Miguel Vargas the 2021 Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year and right-handed pitcher Hyun-Il Choi the 2021 Branch Rickey Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

Vargas moved up to №6 on the Dodger prospect list compiled by MLB.com after a powerful 2021 season between High-A Great Lakes and Double-A Tulsa, batting a combined .319/.380/.526 with 23 home runs and 27 doubles. He homered in his first game of the year with Great Lakes and slashed .314/.366/.532 with seven home runs in 37 games before getting called up to Tulsa for the first time on June 6. He hit .321/.386/.523 with 16 home runs in 83 Double-A games.

The 6-foot-3-inch 21-year-old from Cuba ranked in the top 10 in average, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS among all qualified Double-A batters. Vargas is the son of Cuban national baseball team star Lázaro Vargas, who won two Olympic gold medals.

Since signing as an international free agent in September 2017, Miguel Vargas has hit .316/.384/.480 with 32 home runs in 297 games across three minor league seasons.

“My approach this year is a lot different,” Vargas said earlier this year to Dodger Insider. “I feel like I know me more than past years. My approach in the counts is different. I’m more aggressive at home plate. I know what I want. I know where I want to find the ball.”

Choi played his first full minor league season this year after playing in the Rookie-level Arizona League in 2019, where he led the league with 71 strikeouts in 65 innings. The 21-year-old right-hander went 8–6 with a 3.55 ERA and 0.97 WHIP with 106 strikeouts in 106 1/3 innings between Low-A Rancho Cucamonga and High-A Great Lakes this season.

Choi, who was signed as an international free agent in 2018 out of Seoul, South Korea, went 8–3 with a 3.17 ERA and 0.83 WHIP with Rancho Cucamonga before getting called up to Great Lakes on July 31 and posting a 4.17 ERA in nine starts. He is currently ranked the №26 overall prospect in the Dodger system.

“I think this award is really good for me, a little positivity I can give myself to prove that what I’ve been doing is working so far and is going to push me to the next level,” Choi said through an interpreter.

Vargas and Choi were presented their respective awards in a ceremony Friday prior to the Dodgers’ series opener against the Brewers.