Rays Thankfully Saw Generational Talent Emerge at Third Base This Season

The Tampa Bay Rays have a star on their hands at third base

Apr 3, 2023; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; A general view of a Tampa Bay Rays hat and glove during the seventh inning of the game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. | Scott Taetsch-Imagn Images

With the 2025 season coming to a close soon after the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers battle it out to decide who will win the World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays will be anxiously awaiting to get their winter started. 

This was a team that had hopes of making the playoffs in 2025, and they appeared like they had a chance in the first half of the year. Unfortunately, things fell apart for the team once the summer rolled around and they finished eight games under the .500 mark. 

Despite it being a disappointing campaign from that standpoint, there were a lot of things to like about the team in 2025 and the direction that they are going. While by no means was the team perfect, but they were pretty solid in most areas. Depth might have been a bit of an issue in what became an ultra-competitive American League East, but the Rays did see some real positives come out of the season. 

When looking at how the year finished up, arguably the most prominent bright spot was the production that they received from the third base position. Tampa Bay elected to use one of their young players at the position and he burst on to the scene in a significant way. 

Junior Caminero Is a Superstar 

John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

At just 21 years old, Caminero was able to accomplish some incredible things, and he quickly entered the conversation as one of the best young players in baseball. In 2025, he slashed .264/.311/.535 with 45 home runs and 110 RBI. Those are some extremely impressive power numbers from someone his age and the sky is the limit for the talented slugger. 

For Tampa Bay, they have to be ecstatic with the level of production that they received from Caminero. The young slugger is under team control for a long time, and the franchise will certainly think about trying to lock him up to a long-term team friendly deal. 

The Rays are a franchise that has had some strong play from the third base position in their history with Evan Longoria being a star during his time in Tampa Bay. Now, it appears like the next face of the franchise has arrived for the franchise. Even though not every position was perfect for Tampa Bay in 2025, they certainly had elite level production from third base thanks to Caminero.