Junior Caminero survives All-Star Game scare, goes into second half with high hopes
The baseball world can collectively exhale now that Rays third baseman Junior Caminero is ok after his injury scare in the All-Star Game.
The baseball world, especially those who closely follow the Tampa Bay Rays, let a collective gasp loose when third baseman Junior Caminero was hit on the hand during the 2026 MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday evening.
Caminero, who leads all MLB third basemen in home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS, collapsed to the ground, grimacing in pain before running into the dugout and down the tunnel.
Luckily, X-rays on his hand came back negative, with Tampa Bay Times beat writer Marc Topkin reporting that ‘La Maxima’ would be ready to play in Tampa Bay’s Friday doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox to kick off the second half of the 2026 season.
“Right there in the moment, you’re thinking the worst, and I honestly thought something might have been broken,” Caminero said to reporters postgame on Tuesday through an interpreter. “Thank you to God that everything’s fine. … A little sore, but nothing. Ready for Friday.””
A Sigh of Relief
What a relief that news was for so many as Caminero has built off what has been a strong pre-ASG break, currently hitting .279 with a .372 on-base percentage, .927 OPS, 28 homers, 59 RBI and a 3.2 fWAR.
He rightfully earned his spot as the starting third baseman for the American League in the Midsummer Classic and has exceeded expectations in his second full season in the league.
Caminero was also invited back to and participated in his second Home Run Derby, hitting 17 homers in the new format before getting knocked out by eventual derby champion Jordan Walker in the semifinals.
“I’m proud of myself,” Caminero said after the derby. “It’s part of the game.”
Many will point to his impressive bat speed, currently leading the league at 79.9 miles per hour on average, but it’s his patience at the plate which has allowed him to reach a new level of productivity and domination at the plate.
“When I was a young man, my swing was always fast, always,” Caminero said in an interview with ESPN senior MLB insider Jeff Passan.
A surge toward the end of 2025 saw his OBP surge to .311, a career-high for him, but right now, that number sits 61 points higher in 2026, thanks to a walk percentage that sits in the 88th percentile in the league.
Caminero, at just 22 years old, is currently walking nearly 13 percent of the time, already with 53 walks in 94 games compared to just 41 in 154 games played last season.
He’s not been afraid to take his walks, especially as the most feared hitter in Tampa Bay’s lineup, but with three big hitters in that lineup in Caminero, Yandy Díaz and Jonathan Aranda, teams have been more prone to pitch around him, especially with his home run total climbing so rapidly.
That was much in part due to an AL Player of the Month performance in June where he hit 11 homers in 11 games at one point, but it has made him a player opponents simply do not want to face.
We’ll see how that will affect him over the final 70 or so games of the regular season, but Caminero has simply been a revelation offensively. A breakout 2025 season saw him finish one home run short (45) of tying Carlos Pena for the single-season franchise record, but he’s more than ready to break that record by September.
To tie the record, he needs just 18 more homers the rest of the way and to break the record, add one more to the total at 19. It’s more than possible, but with the Rays currently atop both the American League East and American League as a whole, tying or setting the record is secondary.
Caminero is the face of the AL’s best team and his goal is to help Tampa Bay get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2023, the season where he earned his first call-up to the big leagues.
“The Rays are the best,” Caminero told Passan. “We’re playing really good baseball right now. Everyone is together, inside the clubhouse, outside the game, team dinners. … Players like Nick Martinez, he’s a leader. I love that guy. They take care of the young guys.”
Veteran players litter the roster, but come October, if the Rays can get there, they’re going to need Caminero to have that big moment, a moment he’s already experienced in LIDOM in the Dominican Republic, but a moment he’s truly yet to have while in MLB.
“In that moment, October, the playoffs, you have to lock in,” Caminero said. “You have to lock in a lot.”
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