ESPN analyst names White Sox 26-year-old breakout star as sneaky MVP candidate

ESPN analyst names White Sox 26-year-old breakout star as sneaky MVP candidate originally appeared on The Sporting News.
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Chicago White Sox are having an incredible 2026 season, as they’re serious AL Central contenders and are looking likely to be trade deadline buyers this summer.

Munetaka Murakami has drawn a lot of the headlines towards him for his ridiculously hot start to the year, but another breakout White Sox star might be a realistic MVP candidate.

ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle called out 26-year-old breakout star Miguel Vargas as a player worth keeping an eye on in the AL MVP discussion as a sneaky candidate to win the end-of-season award.

White Sox’s Miguel Vargas named as a legitimate MVP candidate

“If the White Sox are going to be 2026’s Cinderella story, why not a Cinderella MVP candidacy?” Doolittle writes. “… It’s a long shot, but if the White Sox keep up their amazing trajectory, and the AL race remains muddled, why not Vargas?”

Seeing Vargas win the 2026 MVP would certainly be something incredible. Coming into the year, there was optimism with Vargas and the White Sox, but not to this degree.

Not only are the White Sox legitimate postseason contenders, but Vargas might be an MVP underdog worthy of some attention. ESPN’s “AXE” rating has him sixth in MVP candidacy with a 128.6, a little bit below Bobby Witt Jr. at 142.2 AXE.

Witt’s Kansas City Royals, and the other top MVP candidates in the AL, including Nick Kurtz of the Athletics, Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros, and even Kevin McGonigle and Dillon Dingler of the Detroit Tigers, are all part of teams that could miss the postseason.

MORE: Red Sox need middle infield help at trade deadline amid renewed postseason hope

That would give Vargas a chance to be the only legitimate MVP candidate to have his team in a postseason position. Of course, there’s more to being an MVP than the team’s overall success, but it would be a little bit of a boost that could get him the award.

To get to such a point, he needs to continue having an elite season. So far, he has 3.0 bWAR in 85 games with 76 hits, 57 runs scored, 16 doubles, one triple, 19 homers, 52 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, 50 walks to 62 strikeouts, a .244 batting average, and an .839 OPS.

His 132 OPS+ is a fairly strong mark, but if he can raise it further from now until the end of the season, the White Sox make the postseason, ideally by winning the AL Central, then Vargas would have a legitimate chance to win the AL MVP.

It might be a long shot, but it’s not that impossible if things break his way. Vargas has been awesome this season, and he’s someone who might be a sneaky MVP candidate.

More MLB news: