The 32-year-old slugger hasn't appeared in the big leagues since the 2017 season with the Twins. He spent the past two seasons in the Mexican League, most recently slashing .324/.462/.566 with 17 homers and 65 RBI in 85 games. He'll add depth at the first base position for the Reds.

Vargas has most recently appeared in the Puerto Rican Winter League with Mayaguez, slashing .272/.434/.505 with five homers and 25 RBI in 31 games. His last big-league appearance dates back to 2017 with Minnesota, where he finished with a .253 average, 11 long balls and 41 RBI across 78 contests. Vargas figures to begin the year with Triple-A Toledo.

After being outrighted off the Twins' 40-man roster coming out of spring training, Vargas spent the entire 2018 campaign at Triple-A Rochester, delivering a .240/.326/.425 slash line across 644 plate appearances. With that production unlikely to earn Vargas much more than a minor-league deal this winter, the 28-year-old elected to take his talents overseas for the 2019 season. Contact issues have limited the impact of Vargas' considerable pop in the majors and high minors, but he could emerge as a top slugger in Japan while teeing off against lower-caliber pitching.

After bouncing back and forth between the Reds and Twins, Vargas will indeed open the season back at Rochester after passing through waivers untouched. He will serve as organizational depth. While the 27-year-old possesses some serious pop, he's failed to get things going in brief major-league stints over the previous four seasons, hitting a combined .252/.311/.437 with 35 homers in 236 games.