Five years ago, the Cleveland Guardians had a promising but raw prospect. Today, that young player is one of MLB’s brightest stars and most powerful hitters.
That guy was blocked in the organization by prime Jose Ramirez at the moment of the trade. Now that the Guardians’ superstar is set to miss some time with a broken hamate bone in his left hand, however, they could sure use him.
That player’s name is Junior Caminero, and he put up a 45-homer, 110-RBI season last year in Tampa as a 21-year-old. He was a member of the Guardians organization up to 2021, when they traded him for pitcher Tobias Myers.
It wasn’t the Guardians’ best trade, to be completely fair. As an organization, they have had their fair share of hits on the market. This one was a clear miss.
“Cleveland dealt the 18-year-old Caminero for Myers, who had a 3.90 ERA and 146 K’s in 117 2/3 Minor League innings that year. It didn’t take long, however, for Cleveland to realize that this was a bad trade. Myers was designated for assignment in July 2022, less than eight months after the move. Meanwhile, Caminero was crushing the ball at every stop in the Minors. He got called up in 2023 and has been one of the most productive third basemen since,” MLB.com’s Brian Murphy wrote.
At the time, it was seen as a ‘minor’ transaction. In fact, Murphy’s piece is titled ‘6 ‘minor’ trades that are having a big impact on the 2026 season’. For Tampa, however, it was quite the discovery.
Caminero was 18 years old at the time, and it’s impossible to accurately determine the future value of someone so young. Still, maybe the Guardians should have kept him based on pure upside alone.
Caminero fully broke out last year and has kept most of the gains he made. He is slashing, as of Wednesday morning, a robust .273/.371/.489 with 15 home runs and a 137 wRC+. He has already scored 43 runs and has dramatically improved his walk rate. He is still young and learning.
Meanwhile, Cleveland still doesn’t know who will be the full-time third baseman for the next few weeks, as Ramirez recovers from surgery. It might be Gabriel Arias, who boasts a career 76 wRC+.
If the Guardians could take back the Caminero trade, they would do it in a heartbeat.
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