Junior Caminero doesn't need a translator to make his point anymore, and after listening to Jeff Passan's new sit-down with the Rays' 22-year-old cornerstone, that feels like the least interesting thing about him. Passan built a whole podcast episode around Caminero, covering everything from why he thinks max contracts are a bad idea for players to his growing voice in the looming labor fight to what it's actually like getting traded as a prospect and playing winter ball halfway around the world in Australia.
Full episode: Junior Caminero on the folly of max contracts, why he’s getting involved in the labor fight, what it’s like to be traded, playing baseball in Australia and so much more. This is his first long interview in English, too. Impressive all-around. https://t.co/Zj1wjcP9c0
But the story everyone's going to clip is the home run. According to Passan, Caminero told his own catcher not to call a fastball again in an at-bat, because if he did, Caminero was going to hit it out. The catcher called the fastball anyway. Caminero hit it out anyway. Then he flipped his bat more than 40 feet in the air, because when you call your shot and back it up, you're allowed to have some fun with it.
Junior Caminero told a catcher not to call a fastball again or he'd hit a home run. The catcher called a fastball. Caminero hit a home run. And then he flipped his bat more than 40 feet in the air. The full story behind the "I can't believe it" home run. https://t.co/p54xe5BrG0
This isn't some random cage warm-up story either. Caminero's bat-flip trot has already gone viral once this year during a Dominican winter league championship series, when he launched a 104 mph fastball into center for a go-ahead shot and then took what felt like a lap-and-a-half around the bases hugging everyone in sight. Passan's new episode is the first time the full backstory behind that swing, and the trash talk that set it up, has actually been told in Caminero's own words.
Zoom out and it's easy to see why ESPN wanted a full hour with this kid. Caminero just put up a 45-homer season while hitting .264 with a .535 slugging percentage in his age-22 year, numbers that instantly made him the face of a Rays franchise still figuring out its ballpark situation and its ownership direction. He's under club control through 2030, and while he's said he'd be open to a long-term extension, he's also been refreshingly blunt that it's not really his call to make. That same bluntness is clearly why Passan wanted him talking about max contracts and the labor fight in the first place, not just home run trots.
That's really what makes this profile land. A guy who's shown he can back up his talk in the batter's box is now willing to do the same thing on the business side of the sport, at 22, in his first big English-language interview. The homer is the moment that gets the clicks, but the labor stuff is the part that'll actually follow him for the next decade.