Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero Named American League Co-Player of the Week

TAMPA, Fla. — Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay's 21-year-old third baseman, had a few big games last week during the Rays' offensive hot streak. He had six RBIs on Thursday against Houston, and five more on Saturday. For the week, he hit .379 with four homers, 13 RBIs, four doubles and eight runs over seven games, witha 1.331 OPS.

For that, Caminero was named American League co-player of the week, sharing the honor with Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh. It was his first MLB award, and the first time a Rays player has won a weekly honor since former third baseman Isaac Paredes — than man Caminero replaced in the Rays' starting lineup — won the award in June 27, 2022. Manuel Margot also won a player of the week award while with the Rays in May of 2022.

Christian Yelich of Milwaukee won the National League player of the week award.

It was an epic week for Caminero. He became just the third Rays player ever with at least 11 RBIs over a three-game span and he was the first to do it since teammate Brandon Lowe also had 11 RBIs in a three-game stretch at the end of the 2021 season.

Caminero also had two RBIs on Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins, so his 13 RBIs over a four-game stretch are also tied for third-most in franchise history in that span. Ben Zobrist did that during a hot stretch in April 2011.

Caminero's six extra-base hits in the Astros series were the most since former third baseman Evan Longoria also had six extra-base hits against the Toronto Blue Jays in May of 2013.

The Rays (30-29) are back in action on Tuesday night, taking on the Texas Rangers at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The game starts at 7:35 p.m. ET.

Here's the complete list of American League winners so far this season:

March 29: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
April 5: Alex Bregman, Boston Red Sox
April 12: Ty France, Minnesota Twins
April 19: Dylan Moore, Seattle Mariners
April 26: Jorge Polanco, Seattle Mariners
May 3: Riley Greene, Detroit Tigers
May 10: Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox
May 17: Miguel Vargas, Chicago White Sox
May 24: Taylor Ward, Los Angeles Angels
May 31: Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays, and Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners.

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