The Rays have reached the American League Championship Series, and now Junior Caminero gets the kind of stage that can turn a big season into something even bigger.
Tampa Bay now knows it will face the Cleveland Guardians after Cleveland’s comeback win over the Chicago White Sox sent the AL playoff bracket into its final pairing. The matchup brings together two teams that reached this point in sharply different ways.
Cleveland climbed back from a 2-0 hole in the ALDS, with Games 3 and 4 coming on the road. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, handled the New York Yankees with a sweep that raised plenty of questions for its division rival heading into the winter.
The series also puts two of the majors’ smaller spenders in the spotlight. Whatever the broader debate about a salary cap, this matchup is another reminder that the road to October’s biggest stage does not belong only to the biggest payrolls.
For the Rays, the run to this point has been a team effort. But Caminero has been one of the main reasons they are still playing. The 23-year-old third baseman has already started building a reputation as one of the league’s top young bats, and this series gives him a national platform to strengthen that case.
He is likely to finish behind Yordan Alvarez in the AL MVP race, but that does not erase what Caminero has done this year. His production has been right in the heart of the league’s elite conversation, and he has been the best player on the best team in the league.
Caminero’s line this season tells the story: .276/.360/.524 with 42 home runs and 101 RBI. It was the second straight year he reached more than 40 homers and 100 RBI while also slugging better than .500.
Even with those numbers, he has still been easy to overlook because Tampa Bay does not always command the same national attention as some of the sport’s heavier hitters. The sweep of the Yankees helped the Rays make their point quickly in the ALDS. Now the Guardians are next, and Caminero has a chance to deliver the kind of signature moment that can push a great season into star territory.
In Other News...
Rays Open ALCS With A Pitching Edge That Could Change Everything
The American League Championship Series opens Monday at Tropicana Field with Tampa Bay already set up the way it likes to be set up in October: leaning on pitching depth and trying to make the other side solve one matchup after another. Cleveland has announced Triston McKenzie for Game 1, with Parker Messick, Gavin Williams and Daniel Espino among the other rotation possibilities, while the Rays are preparing to go with Drew Rasmussen at the front of a group that has given them a clear edge in recent weeks.
Rasmussen has been effective since the All-Star break, and that matters in a series where every early lead can feel decisive. Tampa Bays plan is built to keep arms fresh and pressure constant, and the way the Rays handle the back end of the rotation could end up being just as important as the first pitch on Monday. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Bring One Big Edge Into ALCS Showdown With Cleveland
The ALCS matchup between the Guardians and Rays brings together two clubs that know each other well, and Tampa Bay arrives with a clear regular-season edge in the background. Clevelands pitching was strong enough to keep the series competitive across the summer, with Parker Messick and Gavin Williams helping anchor that side of the matchup, but the Rays also showed they could control games with their own arms and make life difficult for the Guardians.
Tampa Bays deeper lineup is part of what makes this series feel tilted its way on paper, even before the first pitch of Octobers biggest round. The Rays did enough head-to-head damage to build confidence heading into Cleveland, and their starting pitching gave them a formula that worked when these teams met before. What remains to be seen is whether that edge holds when the stakes rise and the margin for error gets much smaller. [Read more 🡒]
Junior Caminero Is Changing How Fans See The Rays Again
Junior Caminero has become one of the more recognizable young stars in Tampa Bay, and his rise has given the Rays another reminder that their player development machine can still reshape how people view the roster. Signed by the Guardians as an amateur free agent in 2019, Caminero was still just a prospect when he arrived in the Rays system, but he has since grown into a premier third baseman and a legitimate MVP-level presence.
The backstory only adds to the fascination around him, because the move that brought him to Tampa Bay was viewed at the time as a fairly small transaction. Now, with Caminero carrying so much of the clubs future and changing the conversation around the lineup again, it is easy to see why Rays followers keep circling back to the details of how he got here. [Read more 🡒]