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Nationals, Ildemaro Vargas Avoid Arbitration

By Nick Deeds | September 27, 2023 at 3:50pm CDT

The Nationals have agreed to a contract with Ildemaro Vargas for the 2024 season, the team announced this afternoon. Financial details of the contract have not yet been made available. The deal will offer Vargas, who was set to be arbitration eligible this offseason, some security regarding his place in the organization headed into next season.

In exchange for guaranteeing Vargas his 2024 salary and, presumably, spot on the club’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason, the Nationals are getting cost certainty on a veteran infielder who’s proven to be a valuable bench piece during his time in Washington. After kicking off his big league career back in 2015, Vargas spent time with the Cubs, Pirates, Twins, and briefly returned to Arizona before landing in D.C. partway through the 2022 campaign.

Since arriving in the U.S. capitol, Vargas sports a .261/.304/.375 slash line that’s been good for a wRC+ of 90 while boasting a strikeout rate well below 10%. His high-contract, switch-hitting bat offers additional value off the bench thanks to his positional versatility. Vargas has played all four infield positions during his major league career in addition to left field. For a young Nationals club that has little infield depth behind CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia, retaining Vargas gives the club some insurance as they head into a critical offseason with plenty of top prospects on the horizon as soon as this time next year.

Of course, that Vargas figures to remain on the roster headed into 2024 doesn’t mean he figures to continue as the club’s starting third baseman, a role he assumed after Jeimer Candelario was shipped to the north side of Chicago for two prospects. While the pending free agent class isn’t exactly robust in terms of hitters, the coming group at the hot corner includes a handful of interesting veterans like Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Brian Anderson who could turn to the Nationals as an opportunity to draw regular starts in the majors as Candelario did this past offseason.

Vargas signing could also have an impact on fellow arbitration-eligible bench pieces like Michael Chavis and Dominic Smith. Both players are due for raises headed into the 2024 campaign, and could be feasible non-tender candidates for a club that already has Vargas’s veteran infield presence locked into next season’s bench group. Vargas’s return could also impact the opportunities afforded to players like Carter Kieboom and Jeter Downs who have yet to establish themselves in the big leagues.

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View Comments (16)
Post a Comment

16 Comments

  1. Rsox

    2 years ago

    Nationals top priority…

    1
    Reply
    • MLB Top 100 Commenter

      2 years ago

      Nationals needed an IV line

      1
      Reply
  2. AmaralFan1

    2 years ago

    Everyone loves Ildemaro, but Nats fans worry that this will just mean Davey will be starting him over the young guys coming up from the farm. On a side note, Ildemaro is Venezuelan spelling of the German name “Hildimar” which means “the famous fighter.”

    1
    Reply
    • Paleobros

      2 years ago

      That’s a fun fact!

      1
      Reply
    • TheFuzzofKing

      2 years ago

      Nats fans are not so worried about this.

      The general vibe I feel among my fellows is that Vargas slides over once infield prospects are ready.

      Davey isn’t Dusty.

      Reply
    • Blue Baron

      2 years ago

      @AmaralFan1: Everyone loves Ildemaro?

      That’s quite the exaggeration. Most fans outside of DC and even some there have barely or never even heard of the guy.

      Reply
      • MLB Top 100 Commenter

        2 years ago

        I think he meant every Nationals fan

        2
        Reply
        • Blue Baron

          2 years ago

          More casual Nationals fans probably haven’t even heard of him.

          Reply
  3. Sid Bream Speed Demon

    2 years ago

    Wrong Luis Garcia link.

    1
    Reply
    • But I Do

      2 years ago

      Also capital was misspelled.

      Reply
  4. In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani

    2 years ago

    What is the earliest a player has agreed to terms for the upcoming season (ignoring Bo Bichette-like 3 year agreements and such)? This seems premature, given the season isn’t over, and stats can change slightly.

    Reply
    • VottoisafutureHOF18

      2 years ago

      Ohtani agreed to a arbitration contract pretty early last year

      1
      Reply
    • Hemlock

      2 years ago

      An interesting, but a bit unrelated, article about arbitration—

      theathletic.com/4230583/2023/02/20/mlb-salary-arbi…

      Reply
  5. Blue Baron

    2 years ago

    True, it’s interesting.

    But a salary cap will never happen. The MLBPA will never agree to it, so the owners would need to shut the game down for at least an entire season to force it down the players’ collective throat.

    Bud Selig, Jerry Reinsdorf, and a few others forced a strike in 1994 and didn’t bargain in good faith in an attempt to bust the MLBPA and get a salary cap, but it didn’t work.

    Today’s owners showed last year that they don’t have the stomach for such a protracted fight and the PR nightmare it would create for the game.

    Reply
  6. nanyuanb

    2 years ago

    Would like to see more playing time for Kieboom and Downs before House comes up.

    Reply
  7. But I Do

    2 years ago

    What a disaster. This Deeds kid is really out of his depth trying to write on here.

    “Since arriving in the U.S. capitol”

    Wait, Vargas plays inside the US capitol building? You mean capitAl. The city is with an A. The building is with an O.

    Then there’s this mouthful:

    Since arriving in the U.S. capitol,

    “In exchange for guaranteeing Vargas his 2024 salary and, presumably, spot on the club’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason, the Nationals are getting cost certainty on a veteran infielder who’s proven to be a valuable bench piece during his time in Washington.”

    Commas around presumably are wholly unnecessary. Plus the article is missing before “spot.”

    “In exchange for guaranteeing Vargas his 2024 salary and presumably a spot on the club’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason, the Nationals are getting cost certainty on a veteran infielder who’s proven to be a valuable bench piece during his time in Washington.”

    Looks better AND is grammatically correct.

    Reply

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