Miguel Vargas and Andy Pages share emotional All-Star breakthrough

Miguel Vargas and Andy Pages turned a Triple-A roommate bond into an All-Star stage, with Vargas earning his first American League reserve nod and Pages breaking through in just his third big league season. Both arrived in the Dodgers system as Cuban signees for $300,000, Vargas after defecting from Cuba in 2017 and Pages when he signed in October 2017.

Vargas got the news on July 4 inside the White Sox clubhouse at Progressive Field, when teammate Mike Vasil announced the selection in front of a room that had lived through a 121-loss 2024 season. The move from the Dodgers to Chicago came in August 2024 as part of a three-team, eight-player trade. Vargas had once been part of a dejected scene in Oakland after Chicago’s 21st straight loss. White Sox manager Will Venable praised Vargas as more than a bat, pointing to his character and the way he has carried himself as a clubhouse presence and representative of the team.

Vargas became the first White Sox third baseman to make the All-Star Team since Joe Crede in 2008, and he is the first Cuban-born third baseman selected to an All-Star Game since Hall of Famer Tony Pérez in 1970. At the break, Vargas was hitting .245 with 21 home runs, 59 RBIs and 11 stolen bases in 343 at-bats.

He had been a finalist for one of the National League’s starting outfield spots in 2025 but was left out, and Freddie Freeman said Pages deserved the honor a year earlier and was glad to see him get it now. Pages said the bond with Vargas never faded after the two left the Dodgers’ development pipeline, adding, “We’re always in contact, we talk all the time,” and, “I know how much work he put into this.”

Through 88 games, Pages was batting .269 with 16 home runs and 62 RBIs, and his first-half surge put him in position to join the July 14 All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia alongside the same friend he once shared a minor-league room with.