That was Caminero’s first full season at the MLB level. He made his debut at the end of 2023, but was optioned to Triple-A for the first few months of the ’24 season. He is two years removed from arbitration and is under club control until 2030. Caminero says Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times he is said to be interested in exploring a long-term expansion, although it appears the team has not yet opened those talks.
“I would like to discuss it, but this is not my decision,” the young star said. “I feel like this is my city, Tampa. I love Tampa, but this is not my decision. I will control what I control – just go play, have fun.” Caminero’s agent, Rafa Nieves of Republik Sports, said last August that the team had not discussed an extension. Nieves noted that the organization was likely not in a position to make the kind of commitment this would entail. They were midway through a property sale and had seen their long-term plans for the stadium fall through. “Frankly, by the time these question marks are gone, it may be too late,” Nieves said at the time.
The Rays completed the ownership transition in the intervening months. The Patrick Zalupski Group officially purchased the franchise at the end of September. However, the situation in the stadium is an ongoing question. The team is targeting the Hillsborough College campus as the site for a mixed-use development project that would reportedly come at an estimated cost of $2.3 billion.
The team hasn’t announced anything publicly, but recent reporting from The Tampa Bay Times suggests they hope public funding will cover about half of that amount. They are still very early in the process and have no guarantees of public funding, which obviously raises questions about whether they want to make a significant long-term investment.
(They also still haven’t received an official ruling on whether they will pay the remaining $164 million in guarantees on the Hike Franco contract. Franco is not being paid while he is on the restricted list awaiting a second trial after being convicted of sexual abuse of a minor in the Dominican Republic last June.)
Nieves suggested last summer that he could look for a guarantee in the $150-200 million range if they worked on an extension. That would be slightly above the $130-135 million range Jackson Merrill And Roman Anthony have landed. Caminero is a year closer to free agency than Anthony. He put up bigger power numbers than Merrill, but was equally valuable overall in their respective first seasons. Merrill acknowledged at the time he signed his deal that he would likely leave some money on the table to stay in San Diego.
The track record for top position prospects being this productive in their early 20s is excellent. There’s a good chance Caminero will be a cornerstone of the franchise. If the Rays have any reservations about valuing him at that level, it likely has to do with his separation between home and away. Caminero was significantly more productive at their temporary home, George M. Steinbrenner Field (.313/.358/.595) than on the road (.218/.266/.477). In all likelihood, that’s a product of an unsustainably low .197 BABIP in road games rather than an indication that he was a major beneficiary of the minor league home park. The Rays will move back to Tropicana Field for the 2026-2028 season.
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