Junior Caminero’s Loudest Tool is Shining Through Right Now

This now leads me to the point of this article.

Will he be able to provide the Rays with more than just power going forward?

His 91.9 average exit velocity and 50% HardHit rate both rank above the 80th percentile on all of baseball. Those two pair with the 100th percentile bat speed at 78.1 MPH entering June.

Each of those metrics is well above the MLB average. Those numbers are great, and are definitely aiding in the Rays exceeding many fans’ expectations of the team as a whole entering the year, but he is going to need to become more well-rounded if he is going to reach the lofty expectations that were set on him as a prospect.

Not only is Caminero rarely getting on base, but his 4.4% BB% is half (!) of the league average. That explains the OBP that doesn’t reach .300, despite his low K% of 19%. Yes, he is making a lot of contact, an 88.4% in-zone and a 64.3% out of zone, which are both above league-average, but it hasn’t proven to do him well thus far in the 345 balls he has put in play in the small sample size that has been in his 111 career games.

Coming up through the Rays system, even though he was playing primarily shortstop, it was highly anticipated that he was going to move off the position, sliding over to third, once he reached the majors.

Not only because he was expected to outgrow the position due to list limited range and bigger frame, but the Rays were thought to have their long-term shortstop of the future in place at the time.

He has been sprinkled in at second, short, and first a handful of times so far in the 111 games, but, as expected, third base has been his home. This is worrisome because just this year alone, he has -5 defensive runs saved, -4 outs above average, and has committed six errors already. He has provided the Rays with a -3 run value, per Baseball Savant, in 2025.

Look, I am in no way saying that Junior Caminero is not a good baseball player. If you look at the games in which the Rays are winning, and they have been doing a lot of it lately, Caminero is usually right in the middle of it, with run-contributing at-bats throughout the game.

The issue arises when he starts to go through the inevitable dry spells that every player experiences during a grueling 162-game season, year in and year out.

I also did want to bring one last thing up. We need to remember where he is playing his home games, which is where most of his production at the plate has been coming from.