Junior Caminero never looked rattled, and the Rays never had a reason to be.
When Tampa Bay came back to Tropicana Field last Friday, Caminero had gone 15 straight games without leaving the yard, tying the longest homer drought of his career. For a player whose power can feel like a nightly event, that kind of stretch might have invited some nerves. Caminero didn’t bite.
“Not every at-bat is a homer, but the homers [are] coming,” he said Friday. “Everybody knows I have power.”
He backed that up in a hurry. On Saturday, Caminero tied the game in the sixth inning against the Padres with an off-balance swing that still had enough force to send the ball over the fence in a 7-6 Rays win. Then on Sunday, he got Tampa Bay on the board with a Statcast-projected 440-foot blast to left-center before the Rays stormed back for a 5-4 win over San Diego.
That put Caminero at 37 homers, tied with Yordan Alvarez for the American League lead. Only Kyle Schwarber, with 40, and Pete Crow-Armstrong, with 38, have more. It also marked the latest date in Rays history that one of their players has held at least a share of the AL home run lead.
If the past is any guide, the surge may not be slowing down anytime soon.
"It's coming, my guys. The home runs are coming,” Caminero said after Sunday’s game.
“Take it easy. It's gonna be there.”
That’s the part Kevin Cash has seen before. The Rays manager said Friday that the 23-year-old All-Star tends to pile up homers in bunches, and the numbers back it up. Earlier this summer, Caminero went deep in six straight games and homered 11 times in an 11-game span from June 23-July 4.
This season alone, he has homered in consecutive games or more nine times. In his young career, he’s done it 19 times.
The power is obvious every time he swings - even the balls he doesn’t hit over the wall usually come off the bat with authority. The difference comes when he gets enough lift.
“It’s just a matter of time,” Cash said. “When he gets the ball up in the air, he definitely has power to carry it out anywhere in the ballpark.”
Caminero could add another layer to the story soon. If he gets to at least three more homers this month, he’ll become the first player in franchise history with multiple 40-homer seasons. He also has a shot at matching the 45 he hit last year, and Carlos Peña’s Rays record of 46 from 2007 is still within reach.
Even beyond the home run chase, the bat has been working. Caminero’s first-inning single Monday night pushed his hitting streak to 14 games, the longest active streak in the majors and the longest by a Ray since Chandler Simpson’s 18-game run last season. Notably, that streak began during the same homerless stretch that had no effect on Caminero’s confidence.
It’s part of a broader jump in his game. He finished third in the AL in homers last season, but his .311 on-base percentage kept him to a 10th-place finish among qualified hitters in OPS at .846. This year, his .905 OPS ranks second among qualified AL hitters, behind only Alvarez at 1.037.
The rest of the profile has climbed too: a better batting average, 70 walks compared to 41 last season, and an adjusted OPS+ that has risen 20 points from 130 to 150 as of Monday afternoon.
“A guy that, if he’s not hitting home runs, can still really contribute offensively to us with having good at-bats, whether it’s walks or doubles or singles,” Cash said. “I think he’s having just an excellent season.”
So the question of worry answers itself. Caminero isn’t concerned, and with the way he’s hitting, the Rays have no reason to be either.
In Other News...
Rays Roster Expansion Leaves One Late-Season Question Wide Open
The Rays got a little healthier as September roster rules opened the door for a couple of familiar names. Victor Mesa Jr. was reinstated from the 10-day injured list after recovering from a left hamstring strain, and the club also recalled right-hander Alex Cook from Triple-A Durham as part of the move from 26 to 28 players. Mesa is expected to slide back into his right field platoon role, giving Tampa Bay another left-right option in the outfield mix.
Cooks return adds another arm to a bullpen that can use the depth, especially with the schedule tightening and roster spots no longer as hard to come by. He has made two big league appearances this season, so the Rays know what they have in him, but the broader question now is how the expanded roster will be used as the club tries to balance health, matchups and innings over the final stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Face A Costly Drew Rasmussen Decision They Cant Ignore
Drew Rasmussen has been one of the steadier arms in Tampa Bays rotation this season, pairing an All-Star nod with a 2.95 ERA and giving the Rays the kind of reliable production they always value. Even with that performance, his place in the clubs long-term plans is complicated by the economics of a franchise that has long operated carefully around pitching salaries.
The issue is his 2027 club option, which could climb as high as $20 million and sit well above the Rays usual comfort zone. Tampa Bay has not settled on a path yet, and that leaves open the possibility that the front office could consider moving Rasmussen if the price eventually looks too steep to keep him in the fold. [Read more 🡒]
Chandler Simpson Hit A Wall And The Rays Needed Him Through It
Wander Franco Simpsons early-season burst on the bases gave the Rays a different kind of threat, but May and June brought a slowdown that was hard to miss. Pitchers began changing how they worked against him, Tampa Bays offense cooled around him, and the stolen-base pace that had helped define his impact slipped as opponents became more mindful of his speed. Manager Kevin Cash acknowledged that teams adjusted with Simpson in mind, a reminder that once a players biggest weapon becomes a scouting report, the league starts to push back.
August offered a better sign for Tampa Bay, with Simpson improving his contact rate and batting average as he worked through those challenges. The shift mattered because the Rays need more than speed from him now - they need him to keep solving the version of the game that has tried to take that speed away. Even with the adjustment showing up at the plate, the larger question is whether the league has already found a way to keep testing him, and how he answers the next time it does. [Read more 🡒]