Junior Caminero Has Rare Power-Contact Combination
Image credit: Junior Caminero (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images)
Considering Orioles shortstop Jackson Holliday’s performance, rapid advancement and overall pedigree, it may appear that picking this year’s Minor League Player of the Year was an easy decision.
Rays third baseman Junior Caminero made sure it was a close call.
With just a month of full-season baseball under his belt coming into 2023, Caminero emerged as one of the top prospects in baseball thanks to his prodigious power, which he displayed with a rare 30-homer season by a minor league hitter in his age-19 season or younger.
As with many Rays prospects, Caminero was originally signed by another organization. The Guardians, in this case.
The Rays knew they had a potential future 30-homer slugger when they acquired Caminero after the 2021 season in a trade that sent Triple-A righthander Tobias Myers to Cleveland. At the time, Caminero was an 18-year-old who had played one season in the Dominican Summer League.
What Caminero showed in 2023 that surprised everyone was how quickly he could transform into a pure hitter who also has some of the minors’ best power.
The Rays sent Caminero to High-A Bowling Green to start 2023, and he was expected to spend a significant part of the season there. Instead, he hit his way to Double-A Montgomery by the end of May. His .356/.409/.685 slash line made clear that Midwest League pitching was simply not enough of a challenge.
Caminero ended up tied for seventh in the minors with 31 home runs. It was just the fourth time since 2010 that a player had reached 30 home runs in their age-19 or younger season. Caminero joined Joey Gallo, Seuly Matias and Cody Bellinger in that rare club. It has happened just 10 times since Baseball America launched in 1981.
But Caminero got to his power without a flaw that the others all demonstrated. Matias (35%), Gallo (37%) and Bellinger (28%) piled up strikeouts while they racked up home runs. Caminero struck out 20% of the time this year. From Aug. 1 until his mid-September callup to the majors, Caminero hit 15 home runs while striking out just 21 times in 37 games.
Caminero has a special combination of bat speed, all-fields power and rapidly improving contact ability. He led all minor league batting qualifiers with a 90th percentile exit velocity of 110 mph and showed that he was as comfortable flicking balls over the right field wall as he was yanking them to left.
In his brief time in the major leagues, Caminero hit a ball as hard as 112 mph and stands poised as the next Rays impact young hitter.
Teenagers With 30 Home Runs In A Minor League Season Baseball age 19 or younger • 1963–2023
| Player | Year | Age | Levels | HR |
| Joey Gallo | 2013 | 19 | A, Rk | 40 |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 2008 | 18 | A | 39 |
| Jose Cardenal | 1963 | 19 | AA | 36 |
| Andruw Jones | 1996 | 19 | A+, AA, AAA | 34 |
| Greg Luzinski | 1970 | 19 | AA | 33 |
| Larry Walker | 1986 | 19 | A | 33 |
| Bob Robertson | 1965 | 18 | A | 32 |
| Bob Robertson | 1966 | 19 | AA | 32 |
| Ron Wright | 1995 | 19 | A | 32 |
| Wayne Redmond | 1965 | 19 | AA, A | 31 |
| Greg Luzinski | 1969 | 18 | A | 31 |
| Seuly Matias | 2018 | 19 | A | 31 |
| Junior Caminero | 2023 | 19 | AA, A+ | 31 |
| Bob Gorinski | 1971 | 19 | A | 30 |
| Ian Stewart | 2004 | 19 | A | 30 |
| Billy Butler | 2005 | 19 | A+, AA | 30 |
| Cody Bellinger | 2015 | 19 | A+ | 30 |
