Tampa Bay Rays Reportedly Call Up Top Prospect Junior Caminero For Home Stretch

Junior Caminero, the No. 1 prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays' farm system and the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball, is set to join the big league roster against the Houston Astros on Tuesday.

Sep 30, 2023; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero (1) throws out Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr (not pictured) in the seventh inning at Rogers Centre. / Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

The Tampa Bay Rays are calling up infielder Junior Caminero, the Tampa Bay Times' Marc Topkin reported Monday night.

Caminero is the No. 1 prospect in the Rays' farm system and the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. He made his big league debut in September 2023, but the 21-year-old has spent the majority of 2024 back with Triple-A Durham.

Per Topkin, Caminero is expected to get most of his innings at third base, although he could also spend time at designated hitter. He also has limited experience at shortstop and second base.

On the whole this season, Caminero is batting .274 with 16 home runs, 39 RBI and an .859 OPS. He has been limited to just 59 games, however, hitting the injured list twice due left quadriceps issues.

After returning from his Florida Complex League rehab assignment on July 19, Caminero went on to hit .304 with an .857 OPS across his next 19 games.

Caminero hit .324 with 31 home runs, 94 RBI and a .976 OPS between High-A Bowling Green and Double-A Montgomery in 2023, skipping Triple-A entirely en route to his first MLB promotion. He hit .235 with one home run, seven RBI and a .631 OPS in seven big league appearances last fall, and he even earned a spot on the Rays' AL Wild Card Series roster.

José Caballero and Curtis Mead have been splitting time at third base since the Rays sent Isaac Paredes to the Chicago Cubs and Amed Rosario to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline last month. The former is batting .240 with a .671 OPS, while the latter is batting .235 with a .567 OPS.

The Rays dropped back to .500 after losing 6-1 to the Houston Astros on Monday. At 59-59, Tampa Bay is now 5.5 games back of the third and final AL Wild Card spot with less than seven weeks in the regular season.

Game two against the Astros is slated to get underway at 6:50 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Caminero is expected to join the Rays in time for that contest, but they will need to make an additional move in order to free up space on the active roster.

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