The Rays found another one.
Junior Caminero is the latest example of Tampa Bay spotting value where another club saw a throw-in, and this time the payoff has been enormous. The third baseman arrived from the Guardians in a tiny post-2021 deal, and what looked like a modest swap has turned into one of the cleanest wins in recent trade memory.
At the time, Caminero didn’t even know how to process it.
"That happened really quick. In that moment, as a young player, I was surprised," he told MLB.com.
"'Why did Cleveland trade me? We played just one year in the Dominican, and they traded me?'
I said, 'Am I a bad guy? Why would they trade me?'
But in that moment, I didn't understand baseball. Like, hey, if you get traded, it's good for you.
It was an unbelievable trade. Thank God."
The deal itself came in November of 2021 and was as low-key as they come. Tampa Bay sent right-hander Tobais Myers to Cleveland, while the Rays brought back Caminero, then just a teenager who had spent two years in the Guardians system.
Neither player had reached the majors, and both were viewed as promising prospects. MLB.com had Caminero as the Rays’ No. 30 prospect before the 2022 season, with Myers slotting in as Cleveland’s No.
That ranking gap turned into a massive miss for the Guardians.
Tampa Bay knew what it had pretty quickly. Former Rays director of Minor League operations Jeff McLerran said the club’s first impression was all about Caminero’s bat.
"The immediate reaction upon acquiring him was wondering how in the world we were able to make that acquisition," former Rays director of Minor League operations Jeff McLerran said. "Really from the get-go, the guys felt like we had something special with Junior. Just his ability to impact the baseball and what he could do at the plate was not something that they had seen much from a guy that age."
Cleveland, meanwhile, moved on fast. The Guardians flipped Myers to the San Francisco Giants in June of 2022 for cash considerations, and Myers later spent time in the Chicago White Sox system before making his MLB debut with the Milwaukee Brewers. He now plays for the New York Mets.
Caminero’s rise has made the whole sequence look even worse for Cleveland. When he jumped into the top-five prospect discussion two years after the trade, Guardians president Chris Antonetti put it plainly: "That's a bad trade."
He was right, and the numbers since then only sharpen the point. Caminero debuted in September of 2023 at 20 years old, then settled in during 2024 before exploding in 2025 with the first of back-to-back 40-homer seasons. Since the start of 2025, he has more home runs than anyone in the American League and trails only Kyle Schwarber in the majors.
Junior Caminero stats
2023: 7 games, 8 hits, 4 runs, 1 HR, 7 RBIs, .235 BA, .278 OBP, .631 OPS
2024: 43 games, 41 hits, 15 runs, 6 HR, 18 RBIs, .248 BA, .299 OBP, .724 OPS
2025: 154 games, 159 hits, 93 runs, 45 HR, 110 RBIs, .264 BA, .311 OBP, .846 OPS
2026: 162 games, 170 hits, 100 runs, 42 HR, 101 RBIs, .276 BA, .360 OBP, .885 OPS
What started as a minor swap for roster space and a pitcher Tampa Bay wanted became a full-blown star turn for Caminero - and another reminder that the Rays have a knack for finding the player everyone else leaves behind.
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