Fastball

Tampa Bay Rays Calling Up One of Baseball's Top Prospects As AL East Race Reaches Fever Pitch

The Tampa Bay Rays enter play on Friday at 94-60 and just 1.5 games back of the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East race. As they try to chase down the O's, they are calling in one of baseball's top prospects: Junior Caminero.

Brady Farkas

Tampa Bay Rays Calling Up One of Baseball's Top Prospects As AL East Race Reaches Fever Pitch
Tampa Bay Rays Calling Up One of Baseball's Top Prospects As AL East Race Reaches Fever Pitch /
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The Tampa Bay Rays enter play on Friday at 94-60 and just 1.5 games back of the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East race.

As they try to track down the O's and the No. 1 seed in the American League playoff picture, they are calling on one of baseball's best overall prospects.

Per Jeff Passan of ESPN:

BREAKING: The Tampa Bay Rays are calling up top infield prospect Junior Caminero, sources tell ESPN. Caminero, 20, will make the leap from AA, where he was hitting .309/.373/.548 with 20 HR in 314 ABs.

News, free and unlocked, at ESPN:

Caminero was an international signing of the Cleveland Guardians back in 2019. He is currently the No. 6 prospect in all of baseball, per MLB.com.

The following comes from a portion of his prospect profile:

Only 19 at the start of the 2023 season, Caminero possesses elite bat speed that generates a ton of power to his pull side and impressive bat-to-ball ability that allows hard line-drive contact to all fields. His plus raw power led to 11 homers over 62 games as he hit .314/.384/.498 between the Rookie-level FCL Rays (where he was the organization’s team MVP) and Single-A Charleston in 2022, but there may be more over-the-fence production coming as he continues to grow. Evaluators rave about his offensive traits and mature feel for what he’s doing in the batter’s box, painting the picture of a potentially special bat.

Caminero’s best spot defensively is third base, where he spent most of his time in his first season with the Rays and all his time in the Australian Baseball League over the winter...

Caminero will get a chance to make his major league debut on Friday when the Rays take on the Toronto Blue Jays.

First pitch from Tampa Bay is set for 6:40 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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