Junior Caminero

Junior Alberto Caminero

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 157 lb.

Debut September 23, 2023

Born July 5, 2003 in Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional D.R.

Biographical Information[edit]

Infielder Junior Caminero was named the Tampa Bay Rays Minor League Player of the Year the day before making his major league debut with the team on September 23, 2023. Playing that season with the High-A Bowling Green Hot Rods and the AA Montgomery Biscuits, he hit .324/.384/.591 in 117 games, with 85 runs scored, 31 homers and 94 RBIs. He was selected to play in the 2023 Futures Game and was the Player of the Month in the South Atlantic League in April and in the Southern League in July. In his debut, he was the Rays' starting DH against the Toronto Blue Jays and went 1 for 4 with a walk, scoring a run in a 6-5 win. He went 8 for 34 in 7 games (.235), with 1 homer and 7 RBIs, and 0 for 2 while appearing in both games of the Wild Card Series against the Texas Rangers.

He was originally signed by the Cleveland Indians as an international amateur free agent on July 2, 2019 but was traded to Tampa Bay on November 19, 2021 in return for P Tobias Myers. Following his big league debut, he returned to the minors at the start of the 2024 season, hitting .277 in 53 games for the AAA Durham Bulls and also appearing in 6 games for the FCL Rays on a rehabilitation assignment. When he was called up to Tampa Bay on August 13th, he was considered the #1 prospect in the minors, with the recent promotion of Jackson Holliday to the Baltimore Orioles. He got a hit in his first game against the Houston Astros, but also struck out three times. However he quickly settled into a regular job at third base, and on August 23-24, he homered on back-to-back days against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He played a total of 43 major league games that season, hitting .248 with 6 homers and 18 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 105. After the season, he played for the Leones del Escogido in the Dominican League and won MVP honors by hitting .424. His dramatic home run in the 9th inning of Game 7 of the league's championship series on January 28, 2025, coming off Jairo Asencio of the Tigres del Licey, gave Escogido the title; they then went on to win the 2025 Caribbean Series to cap a great winter league season.

Junior was probably the Rays' player who benefitted most from the team's forced move from Tropicana Field to George M. Steinbrenner Field for the 2025 season. He seemed to take particular pleasure from the temporary home's short dimensions, as by the end of May, 9 of his 11 homers had been hit at home, and he was batting .304 there as opposed to .162 on the road. Also helping him was the fact that the schedule was front-loaded with home games, in order to avoid the worst of the summer heat and humidity in the uncovered ballpark, with Tampa Bay having played more than twice as many games at home than on the road by that point. Still, his most memorable games during that stretch had come on the road: on May 13th, a 9th-inning grand slam off Jeff Hoffman of the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre had given the Rays an 11-9 win, and a six-RBI effort against the Houston Astros at Daikin Park on March 29th was key to a 13-3 win. He was named to the American League team for the 2025 All-Star Game and also took part in the Home Run Derby, making it all the way to the finals against major league home run leader Cal Raleigh. Had he managed to win the competition, he would have been the youngest winner ever at 22. He continued to hit well over the second half of the season and finished at .264 in 154 games, with 45 homers and 110 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 131. He was third in the AL in homers and total bases (322) and 5th in RBIs and finished 9th in the voting for the MVP Award. His 45 homers were one shy of the franchise record of 46, set by Carlos Peña in 2007 and he was the fifth player in major league history to hit that many before turning 23. In terms of splits, while he did hit .313 at home and just .218 on the road, he actually had more homers on the road, 23 to 22, so he was not entirely a creature of an outlier home ballpark.

Before spring training started in 2026, with the Rays slated to return to Tropicana Field, he was named a member of the Dominican Republic national team for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. He had an excellent tournament, as he went 7 for 20 in six games, with a double, three homers and seven RBIs. On June 25th, he had the first three-homer game of his career in a 13-2 win over the Kansas City Royals. He hit a two-run homer off Seth Lugo in the 1st, added a solo shot off Lugo in the 5th, then in the 8th teed off against position player Tyler Tolbert for a three-run blast, giving him six RBIs on the day. His performance was overshadowed by the fact three Rays pitchers made a bid to record only the second no-hitter in franchise history, being thwarted by a two-run homer by Carter Jensen off Craig Kimbrel with one out in the 9th. He homered in his next three games as well to become the first Rays player to homer six times in four games. He was just getting started, as he homered over his next two games as well, tying Carlos Peña's franchise record for consecutive games with a homer, set in 2010. He was also the youngest player in major league history to homer in six straight games, beating out Ken Griffey Jr. He was named the Player of the Month in the American League for June, having hit .327 with 10 homers and 24 RBIs during the month, in spite of a coolish start.

Notable Achievements[edit]

AL All-Star (2025)
20-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2025)
30-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2025)
40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2025)
100 RBI Seasons: 1 (2025)

Related Sites[edit]

Junior Caminero on mlb.com

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Junior Caminero

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