MINNEAPOLIS -- First baseman Kennys Vargas and right-hander Jose Berrios were named the Minnesota Twins' Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.
Vargas, 24, spent most of the 2014 season with Double-A New Britain, where he hit .281 with 17 home runs, 17 doubles and 63 RBI in 97 games for the Rock Cats. Those numbers were good enough for him to bypass Triple-A Rochester en route to the major leagues.
Monday marked Vargas' 48th game with the Twins. He's currently batting .288 with nine homers and 38 RBI. He said that his goal this season was to get called up to the major leagues, and it came true when he debuted Aug. 1 with Minnesota.
"For me, it's an honor to be selected Minor League Player of the Year. I worked very hard for that," Vargas said Monday. "Everything I learned about baseball has come from the minor leagues. I appreciate the coaching staff in the minor leagues help me a lot, the hitting coach talked to me every day. If I'm mad or happy, they understand that and they keep trying, keep trying to make me a big league player."
The 20-year-old Berrios began the year at High-A Fort Myers and worked his way through the system to end the season at Triple-A Rochester. In 25 combined starts at three different levels, Berrios was 12-8 with a 2.76 ERA with 140 strikeouts and 38 walks in 140 innings.
Both Berrios and Vargas represented the World team at this year's Futures Game at Target Field. There's a chance they could both be teammates on the Twins next year.
"I think Vargas and Berrios were certainly worthy of those selections," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said of the awards. "Vargas jumped up two levels to get here and Berrios jumped up a couple levels through the course of the summer. Both of them are pretty good and have a chance to be pretty good for a long time up here."
Last year, outfielder Byron Buxton was named the team's Minor League Player of the year, while left-hander Andrew Albers was the Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Buxton's 2014 season was cut short by multiple injuries, while Albers spent 2014 pitching in Korea.
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