When the ALCS begins Monday night, the deep ties that bind the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays will be on display. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt began his playing career with the Rays, ditto Guardians first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. Rays slugger Yandy Díaz began his career in Cleveland.
Relievers Shawn Armstrong and Kevin Kelly have a history with both teams. Then there's Junior Caminero, Tampa's star third baseman and MVP candidate. Caminero signed with the Guardians as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic in July 2019.
Two and a half years later, Cleveland traded him to the Rays for righty Tobias Myers. At the time, Caminero was an 18-year-old in the Dominican Summer League, the lowest rung of the minors. "That's a bad trade," Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told MLB.com in 2023, summing up the deal in the only way you can.
The trade was a footnote at the time. Caminero was not yet a top prospect. The trade was completed in November 2021 and it wasn't until 2023 that Caminero ranked among Baseball America's top 30 Rays prospects.
It wasn't until 2024 that he was a top 100 prospect in baseball. The Rays identified a very talented, very young player and were able to trade for him before he broke out. "We just saw a really talented hitter," Rays vice president of player personnel Kevin Ibach said in November 2021, via MLB.com.
When you acquire players in the complex leagues, whether it's domestically or internationally, I'd rather be a year early than a year late acquiring that profile. You're not always going to get them right, but when you do, those players make such strides over the course of a calendar year that they may not be accessible a year from now." Myers, then 23, was a solid prospect who reached Triple-A in 2021. The Rays were not going to add him to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, so, rather than lose him for nothing, they traded him for a lower-minors lottery ticket in Caminero.
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