During Wednesday’s series finale against the Los Angeles Angels, 22-year old Junior Caminero became just the 19th player in Tampa Bay Rays history to reach 30 homeruns in a single-season and the first since Isaac Paredes launched 31 in 2023.
Caminero has enjoyed a quiet series prior to the multi-HR game on Wednesday; he was responsible for the Rays lone run during Monday’s 5-1 defeat and then had a basehit and scored a run on Tuesday.
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His bat would awaken with force on Wednesday as he walloped a 78mph change-up from Tyler Anderson and sent it 447ft from homeplate into the rocks well beyond the center field fence. It was the longest homerun of Caminero’s career thus far and it gave the Rays an early 2-run lead.
Later on in the game, facing Anderson again, Caminero would show off his immense power once more as he took a fastball painted on the outside corner and hit it to straightaway center field and cleared the fence for a solo homerun, his 30th of the year. The Rays would go on to win the game and claim the series with Caminero hitting .300/.333/.900 over the three-game set.
Overall in his first full big league campaign, Caminero is hitting .253/.293/.509 with 30 HR, registering a 117 wRC+ and accruing 2.5 fWAR over 464 plate appearances; he is 6th in MLB in total HR.
DRAYSBAY PLAYER OF THE SERIES