Zack Greinke Toyed with Dodgers' Miguel Vargas After Realizing He Couldn't Swing a Bat
For the first week and a half of Spring Training, Dodgers rookie infielder Miguel Vargas hasn’t been allowed to swing a bat due to a hairline fracture in his pinkie finger. But that hasn’t stopped Dave Roberts from throwing him into the lion’s den anyways.
In 10 plate appearances, he has drawn in four walks without even swinging the bat. It’s become a joke amongst the team and for any team he faces. In a recent interview, he told the media that some of the pitchers don’t seem to know that he isn’t swinging, or “they would be throwing three strikes.”
But then there are pitchers like Zach Greinke who are well aware of the situation:
One of those pitches was an unusual eephus pitch from Zack Greinke. But this isn’t completely out of the blue for the former All-Star pitcher. Greinke loves throwing his eephus pitch several times per game. The way he went about this sequence, however, just made it all the more fun to watch for fans.
Zack also called all of his own pitches using the PitchCom system on his belt.
Why is Miguel Vargas Playing with a Fractured Pinkie?
With Vargas being so young and his role looking to be more critical this year, Roberts wanted him to get game reps on the field at second base, a new position for the 23-year-old.
After spending four years in the Dodgers’ minor league system, Vargas got his major league debut last season where he got a taste of what his future would look like. Across his 47 major league at-bats during the 2022 season, he had one homer, 4 runs on 8 hits, and 8 RBI to post a .170 AVG.
But before he got some time up at The Show, he excelled with the OKC team down at the Triple-AAA level. During the 2022 campaign, he hit for a .304 AVG with 17 home runs and 82 RBI.
According to Doc as of recently, Vargas should be able to swing a bat again in Wednesday’s game. It’s about time!
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