One of the bright spots of a fourth straight 90-loss season for the Minnesota Twins was the surprising play of first baseman/designated hitter Kennys Vargas after he arrived in Minnesota from Double A New Britain.
Vargas debuted with the Twins on Aug. 1 and he wasted very little time impacting the lineup. Vargas hit .274 with nine homers, 10 doubles and 38 RBIs in just 53 games with Minnesota.
The 6-foot-5, 275-pound smiling young power hitter has no plans to stop there.
“I’m focused on this year,” Vargas told MLB.com Twins blogger Rhett Bollinger. “I want to do the same work I did last year, but I always try to go for more. Every year, I learn a little bit more. I want to help us win more games than last year.”
.@kennys_vargas is practicing discipline so he can be a monster at the dish: http://t.co/ClHTTHzkP9 pic.twitter.com/GP2mz43BHm
— MLB (@MLB) February 4, 2015
As Bollinger notes, Vargas made a point in the offseason to work on his patience. While playing winter ball in Puerto Rico, Vargas hit .263 with six homers and 22 RBIs in 37 games. But more impressively, he led the league with 33 walks and struck out just 30 times.
“It’s not so much about being better, but being smart,” Vargas said. “I need to learn the game. Everything is much faster at this level. So I need to learn to anticipate more and make it easier.”
One thing Vargas may do is make as big a splash on Twitter as he did on the field.
The 24-year-old slugger created his official Twins Twitter account on Tuesday evening and he has quickly become popular – picking up more than 1,000 followers in less than 24 hours with nine Tweets, according to Puckett’s Pond.
https://twitter.com/kennys_vargas/status/563071712137596928https://twitter.com/kennys_vargas/status/562970773200326657
