If the Rays are going to compete for the AL East crown this year, it will likely be after another big year since Little Caminero. The 22-year-old established himself as the face of the franchise with a 45-homer season in which he hit .264/.311/.535 in 653 plate appearances. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each value him between four and five wins over the replacement, the highest on the team.
That was Caminero’s first full season at the MLB level. He cleared the bill at the tail end of 2023 but was optioned to Triple-A in the first few months of the ’24 season. He has two years left in the settlement and under the control of the club until 2030. Caminero tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that he would like to explore a long-term extension, though it doesn’t appear the team has opened those talks yet.
“I would like to (discuss it), but this is not my decision,” said the star. “I feel like this is my city, Tampa. I love Tampa, but this is not my decision. I’ll control what I control – just go play, have fun.” Caminero’s agent, Rafa Nieves of Republik Sports, said last August that the team did not need an extension. Nieves noted that the organization was probably not in a position to make the kind of commitment it would involve. They were in the midst of selling ownership and seeing their long-term stadium plans come to fruition. “Honestly, by the time they get out of those question marks, it’s probably too late,” Nieves said at the time.
The Rays completed their ownership transfer months ago. Patrick Zalupski’s group officially purchased the business in late September. The state of the field is an ongoing question, however. The team is eyeing the Hillsborough College campus as the site for a mixed-use development project that is reportedly going to cost an estimated $2.3 billion.
The team has not announced anything publicly, but recent reports from the Tampa Bay Times indicated that they are hoping for a federal grant to cover about half of that cost. They are very early in the process and have no guarantees about public funding, which raises questions about whether they want to invest long-term.
(They also haven’t received an official decision on whether they will be able to close the remaining $164MM in guarantees on Go Franco agreement. (Franco is unpaid while on the restricted list pending a decision on a second trial after being found guilty of sexually abusing a minor in the Dominican Republic last June.)
Nieves suggested last summer that he could look at a guarantee in the $150-200MM range if they work on an extension. That would be a little more in the $130-135MM area you’re in Jackson Merrill again Roman Anthony they have arrived. Caminero is a year closer to free agency than Anthony. He put up bigger power numbers than Merrill did but was just as important in their first seasons. Merrill admitted when he signed his contract that he may have been leaving money on the table to stay in San Diego.
The track record of top players producing this in their early 20s is excellent. There is a strong possibility that Caminero is the cornerstone of the franchise. If the Rays have any doubts about promoting him at that level, it will likely have to do with his home/road split. Caminero was more productive at their temporary home of George M. Steinbrenner Field (.313/.358/.595) than he was on the road (.218/.266/.477). More than likely, that’s a product of an unbearably low BABIP in road games rather than an indication that he’s overachieved in a minor league home park. The Rays return to Tropicana Field for the 2026-28 seasons.
