Rays name up prime prospect Junior Caminero

ST. PETERSBURG — Summoned from Minor League camp in Spring Training to play a couple of video games for the Rays, infielder Junior Caminero thought a bit about his path to the massive leagues.

“The mentality that I need to have is that I need to be up here next year,” stated Caminero, then solely 19 years outdated, in March by interpreter Manny Navarro.

He beat even his personal boldest prediction.

In pursuit of their fifth American League East title, the Rays referred to as up Caminero — baseball’s No. 6 general prospect in line with MLB Pipeline — from Double-A Montgomery on Friday. As a corresponding transfer, infielder/outfielder Luke Raley was positioned on the 10-day injured listing, retroactive to Thursday, with a cervical pressure, and to make room on the 40-man roster, right-hander Trevor Kelley was designated for project.

Video surfaced Thursday evening of Caminero studying of his promotion within the clubhouse and fortunately celebrating with teammates after Montgomery’s season ended with a 5-1 loss to Pensacola within the Southern League playoffs.

Tampa Bay has clinched a spot within the postseason for the fifth straight yr, however the membership has its sights set on catching Baltimore within the AL East race. The Rays are 1 1/2 video games behind the Orioles getting into Friday’s sequence opener in opposition to the Blue Jays at Tropicana Field, though Baltimore owns management of the head-to-head tiebreaker.

After dominating the High-A degree over 36 video games for Bowling Green, the right-handed-hitting infielder slashed .309/.373/.548 with 20 homers in 81 video games for Montgomery. He is primarily a 3rd baseman, however he has additionally proven the flexibility to play shortstop.

Caminero will add a high-impact bat to Tampa Bay’s lineup, which is coping with some potential harm issues with eight regular-season video games remaining. Raley was despatched for an MRI on Thursday morning as a result of a neck challenge that led to numbness in his left arm on Wednesday evening, and second baseman Brandon Lowe exited an inning after fouling a pitch exhausting off his proper kneecap in Thursday’s walk-off win over the Angels.

Caminero, who simply turned 20 on July 5, would be the youngest energetic participant within the Majors upon his official promotion. The Rays acquired him from Cleveland in a November 2021 commerce for right-hander Tobias Myers, a comparatively low-profile acquisition on the time, contemplating Caminero had solely performed 43 skilled video games within the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League.

But Caminero’s profession has taken off since becoming a member of the Rays. He started the 2022 marketing campaign as Tampa Bay’s No. 30 prospect, in line with MLB Pipeline. He began this yr because the No. 96 general prospect and wound up climbing 90 spots and making the All-Star Futures Game on his option to the massive leagues.

It has been that form of an ascendant season for Caminero, who has crushed Minor League pitching as whereas hovering up prospect rankings.

Between High-A and Double-A, his .591 slugging proportion is the very best in your entire Rays group (Majors and Minors mixed), whereas his .324 common is tied with All-Star first baseman Yandy Díaz for the very best mark within the group and his 31 homers are tied with Triple-A infielder Tristan Gray for many within the system.

“There’s an innate talent and ability there that he possesses that people dream about,” stated High-A Bowling Green hitting coach Paul Rozzelle to MLB.com earlier this season. “He’s very cerebral by way of his work and his ideas and what he needs to do and the way he goes about it.

“He knows right now he’s in some rare company with what he’s able to do, but he doesn’t get overwhelmed with it. It actually puts him in a spot where he gets more driven, more focused, more dedicated to what he wants to do, because I think he’s starting to see those goals are closer to reality than further away.”

Closer than even Caminero might have thought, apparently.