Junior Caminero headshot

Junior Caminero

Tampa Bay Rays · 3B · through 2026-09-11

Elite season

Why he matters right now

Junior Caminero is top-10 in the majors in home runs, total bases and RBI (and 1 other board)

He is 3rd in home runs at 40, 3rd in total bases at 300, 8th in RBI at 95 — placements on MLB's own season boards, which rank every QUALIFIED hitter in the sport rather than the few dozen this site tracks. Qualified is MLB's own bar, and it is the reason a part-season player with a big number is not on these boards at all.

Same case as last night, moved numbers: his headline number went from 39 to 40 since September 10.

The case in 30 seconds

  • 40 3rd in home runs at 40, 3rd in total bases at 300, 8th in RBI at 95 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)
  • OPS .899 — 5th of 49 qualified hitters on this site's tracked board snapshot batting board — the union of MLB's top-10 hitting boards, then MLB's 3.1 PA per team game rule applied; not the league's full qualified pool

The honest caveat

It is still a partial season — 643 plate appearances so far. A rate moves fastest against the strongest arms a schedule has left, and the schedule ahead is not the schedule behind.

What to watch next

Next up: vs Houston Astros. 50 more to reach 350 TB.

Every claim above, with its source (2)
  1. 3rd in home runs at 40, 3rd in total bases at 300, 8th in RBI at 95 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)
  2. OPS .899 — 5th of 49 qualified hitters on this site's tracked board snapshot batting board — the union of MLB's top-10 hitting boards, then MLB's 3.1 PA per team game rule applied; not the league's full qualified pool

Other cases this page considered and did not lead with: Junior Caminero sits 5th in OPS among 49 qualified hitters on this site's tracked board.

The evidence

Tracked on Live Chases

The score is an editorial score, not a measurement on a common scale. The rank above is this player's position on his own category's board — the ordering the site stands behind. See all tracked chases →

What changed last night

1 HR, 2 RBI W 3-1 vs Houston Astros · 2026-09-11 carries a .279 average into today

What to watch next

vs Houston Astros Tropicana Field · 6:10 p.m. ET Facing Peter Lambert

Junior Caminero faces a right-hander in Peter Lambert. He is hitting .275 with 32 home runs in 422 at-bats against right-handers this season.

Situational splits

SplitABAVGHRRBIOPS
vs RHP 422 .275 3279 .884
vs LHP 140 .293 816 .938
Home 268 .287 2152 .954
Away 294 .272 1943 .849
Day 219 .269 1635 .879
Night 343 .286 2460 .912

2026 season, MLB Stats API. A split with no plate appearances is omitted rather than shown as zeroes.

147G
562AB
157H
.279AVG
40HR
95RBI
3SB
212B
13B
.899OPS

Chasing .400

.279Current AVG
114Consecutive hits needed to reach .400
108-for-100Needed over next 100 AB
1.596Rest-of-season AVG to finish .400 (91-for-57)

Status: IMPOSSIBLE

Milestone tracker

ChaseTargetCurrentPaceNeeded from hereStatus
.350 AVG .350 .279 .279 1.053 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.380 AVG .380 .279 .279 1.386 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.400 AVG .400 .279 .279 1.596 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.406 AVG .406 .279 .279 1.667 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.466 AVG .466 .279 .279 2.316 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
50 HR 50 40 44 10 in 15 g · 1 per 5.7 AB EXTREME
60 HR 60 40 44 20 in 15 g · 1 per 2.9 AB EXTREME
62 HR 62 40 44 22 in 15 g · 1 per 2.6 AB EXTREME
70 HR 70 40 44 30 in 15 g · 1 per 1.9 AB EXTREME
73 HR 73 40 44 33 in 15 g · 1 per 1.7 AB EXTREME
200 Hits 200 157 173 43 in 15 g EXTREME
225 Hits 225 157 173 68 in 15 g EXTREME
250 Hits 250 157 173 93 in 15 g EXTREME
262 Hits 262 157 173 105 in 15 g EXTREME
50 SB 50 3 3 47 in 15 g EXTREME
80 SB 80 3 3 77 in 15 g EXTREME
100 SB 100 3 3 97 in 15 g EXTREME
130 SB 130 3 3 127 in 15 g EXTREME
50 2B 50 21 23 29 in 15 g EXTREME
60 2B 60 21 23 39 in 15 g EXTREME
67 2B 67 21 23 46 in 15 g EXTREME
20 3B 20 1 1 19 in 15 g EXTREME
25 3B 25 1 1 24 in 15 g EXTREME
36 3B 36 1 1 35 in 15 g EXTREME
125 RBI 125 95 105 30 in 15 g EXTREME
150 RBI 150 95 105 55 in 15 g EXTREME
175 RBI 175 95 105 80 in 15 g EXTREME
191 RBI 191 95 105 96 in 15 g EXTREME

How likely is the finish?

100%finishes with 40+ home runs
0%finishes with 50+ home runs
0%finishes with 60+ home runs

His rate of 62.210 home runs per 1,000 plate appearances is read as 56.480 after regressing toward the league's 30.170 — a leaderboard selects for players who have outperformed, so an unregressed rate projected forward overstates every one of them. That puts the expected finish at 43.1, against a straight team-game pace of 44. Exact beta-binomial over 66 remaining plate appearances, averaged across playing-time scenarios. Calibrated against Retrosheet finishes: within 7 points of observed frequency in every band, and within 2 in three of five. It is a model, not a measurement.

Home run pace vs the benchmark seasons

36730162 gJudge 62Bonds 7340
Cumulative home runs by team game against straight 62 (Judge 2022) and 73 (Bonds 2001) paces. The homepage checkpoint card uses the exact game-by-game Retrosheet curves; these reference lines are straight-line paces.
87.6%of comparable chases reached 40 HR
0.5%of comparable chases reached 50 HR
0.0%of comparable chases reached 60 HR

Empirical: seasons within ±2 HR of his total at the same team-game checkpoint (n=202); median finish 42. Retrosheet.

Recent game log

Derived nightly from the snapshot ledger — each row is the difference between consecutive days; multi-day rows are labeled.

DateOppResultABHHRRBIRSBBBKAVG
2026-09-11 Houston Astros W 3-1 41 1 21 00 1 .279
2026-09-10 Atlanta Braves L 1-3 30 0 00 01 0 .280
2026-09-09 Atlanta Braves W 7-2 51 0 00 00 1 .281
2026-09-08 Atlanta Braves W 7-1 32 1 12 01 0 .282
2026-09-06 Texas Rangers L 6-8 20 0 10 02 0 .280
2026-09-05 Texas Rangers W 6-3 52 1 11 00 2 .281
2026-09-04 Texas Rangers W 7-6 52 0 21 00 2 .280
2026-09-02 New York Mets L 4-10 40 0 00 00 1 .279
2026-09-01 New York Mets W 6-2 40 0 00 00 2 .281
2026-08-31 New York Mets L 2-3 93 0 10 00 1 .283

Recent highlights

Lahman + Retrosheet context

How this season fits history

Historical twinNelson Cruz · 2016

88% season-shape match

HR checkpoint-24 vs Barry Bonds

Through 147 team games; 64 in 2001

Chase history

.252.273.29404-2409-11
Batting average, day by day
39465204-2409-11
Projected HR, day by day