Fantasy baseball free agent pickups: Need a new hitter? Look to Vargas - ESPN

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Ildemaro Vargas has ascended to starter status this year for the Diamondbacks, and is worth a pickup. AP Photo/Fernando Llano

Stop me if you've heard this one before: A contact-hitting Arizona Diamondbacks infielder adds more than 3% to his Barrel rate, puts forth a top-15 fantasy point total among hitters during the season's first month, and swiftly establishes himself as a viable top-third-of-the-lineup option.

While Geraldo Perdomo might immediately come to mind for his 2025 breakthrough campaign, Ildemaro Vargas(2B/1B, 41.5% rostered in ESPN leagues) is this year's player who fits the description. With his 3-for-5 performance (with a homer) in the Diamondbacks' 12-7 Sunday victory in the second of a two-game set in Mexico City, Vargas now has a 20-game hitting streak this season (and it's actually 23 in a row, dating back into 2025).

Vargas has started each of Arizona's last 12 games, hitting five home runs during that time and earning starts out of the leadoff spot in three of them (Sunday included). With Perdomo injuring his ankle during Saturday's game, Vargas should see continued leadoff time, assuming Perdomo's ailment requires an IL stint. Vargas' ascent to starter status makes him worth a pickup.

Unfortunately, the Perdomo comparisons end with Vargas' power ascent and his hot start to 2026, as the two are not otherwise equal. Perdomo broke through as a 25-year-old with a top-100 prospect pedigree (his 2021 debut year), while Vargas is a 34-year-old journeyman who, before this year, had never effectively hit right-handed pitching. He already has as many home runs against them this year (2) as he had in any of his nine prior MLB campaigns.

Vargas is one of the game's most free-swinging hitters, with a 4.9% career walk rate and a sixth-percentile chase rate this season, so by all rights his hot spell is merely that: a hot spell.