Insider Suggests Guardians May Regret Making 1 Trade

The Cleveland Guardians are entering the 2026 season with some of the best young talent in baseball, both on the major league team and still coming up through their vaunted farm system. Yet it could have been even better if not for a trade they made almost five years ago.

In November 2021, the organization traded teenage infield prospect Junior Caminero to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitcher Tobias Myers. At the time, Caminero was not listed among Cleveland’s top 30 prospects by MLB.com, so no one may have known what he would become.

Now, at just 22 years old, Caminero is one of the top young stars in the game, and watching him perform in the World Baseball Classic, insider Chris Fedor suggested the Guardians may regret making that trade.

“I’m starting to think the Guardians might have made a mistake by trading Junior Caminero,” Fedor posted on X.

I’m starting to think the Guardians might have made a mistake by trading Junior Caminero.

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) March 16, 2026

Putting aside what Caminero has accomplished in this brief MLB career, Cleveland may regret the deal regardless, as Myers did not last very long with the franchise. In July 2022, the Guardians sent Myers to the San Francisco Giants for cash. He made his MLB debut for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2024, split time as a starter and reliever over two seasons, and then was traded to the New York Mets this offseason in the deal that included ace pitcher Freddy Peralta.

It is almost impossible to see what fair value would have been in return for Caminero at this point. After making his debut for the Rays in 2023 as a 19-year-old and appearing in just 50 games over two seasons, Caminero exploded with 45 home runs, 110 RBIs, and an .846 OPS for Tampa Bay last year. In the WBC, Caminero homered for the Dominican Republic’s only run in its semifinal loss to the United States, and he finished the tournament with three homers, seven RBIs, a .350 batting average, and a 1.259 OPS.

The issue may have been that Caminero is a third baseman, a position manned in Cleveland by Jose Ramirez, but, given his talent and their need for power hitters, the Guardians could have found another spot for him had they known what he would become.