Ildemaro Vargas is one of the best stories in baseball right now. The veteran utility infielder is 34 years old, and he’s in what’s technically his fourth stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He’s also MLB’s batting average leader and the architect of three historic hitting streaks.
Although the D-backs suffered a 13-1 defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, stomaching a sixth loss in their past nine games, the switch-hitting Vargas stacked two more hits. He’s notched a hit in each of his 23 outings this season and now is tied for the second longest hit streak to start a season since 1940, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
He’s matched the mark Édgar Rentería set in 2006 with the Atlanta Braves. Rentería wound up making his fifth and final All-Star team that season.
Vargas needs to hit safely in seven more games to tie Ron LeFlore for the longest such streak. LeFlore opened the 1976 campaign with a hit in the first 30 games he played for the Detroit Tigers that year, in which he earned All-Star recognition for the first and only time in his career.
As for Vargas’ second hit streak, well, that one dates back to last season. Since 2025, he’s tallied a hit in 26 consecutive appearances. That’s the longest active streak in the big leagues, and it’s tied for the longest ever by a Venezuelan player. Wilson Ramos, then a catcher for the New York Mets, accomplished that feat during the 2019 season.
Vargas’ third hit streak has a place in D-backs history, as he’s hit safely in 19 straight road outings, according to the Arizona Republic, which reported Thursday that, in continuing that streak from last season, Vargas has leapfrogged Junior Spivey and Stephen Drew for the franchise’s road-game hitting streak record.
He’s doing all of this while batting an MLB-best .378, an average that increased after his two-hit performance versus the Brewers on Thursday.
For reference, Vargas came into the day as a career .257 hitter. What’s more, he already has six homers in 2026. He’s tied a single-season career high in the long-ball department. Vargas also blasted six big flies in 2019, but he played in 92 games that season.
His name is scattered across a handful of MLB offensive leaderboards at the moment. Back in December, he came back to the organization on another minor-league deal. He made the Opening Day roster and has enjoyed a head-turning, hit-filled start to what’s suddenly evolving into an All-Star caliber year.
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