There is no slowing down Junior Caminero these days -- unless he's circling the bases.
At the end of August, Caminero surged to the No. 2 spot in our latest MVP poll. In the three weeks since, the 24-year-old has closed the gap some more -- so much so that he surpassed Triple Crown contender Yordan Alvarez in the Hitter Power Rankings. The last AL hitter ranked higher than Alvarez was the Yankees' Aaron Judge, way back on May 14.
Caminero doesn't quite own the top spot in the rankings. That distinction belongs to Pete Crow-Armstrong for the second consecutive poll. How does the rest of the list shake out? Here are the latest Hitter Power Rankings, as decided by a panel of MLB.com experts. (All stats are through Tuesday unless otherwise noted.)
1) Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs (Previous poll: 1)
PCA is also atop our latest MVP poll, and with 11 games to go in the regular season, he seems poised to dethrone back-to-back NL MVP Award winner Shohei Ohtani. Over the next week and a half, Crow-Armstrong may very well rewrite a number of the Cubs' storied record books. His 43rd home run on Wednesday night broke a tie with Billy Williams (1970) for the most home runs by a left-handed hitter in Cubs history. Later in the game he went deep again to draw even with Ernie Banks (1955) for the most home runs in a single season at age 24 or younger by a Cubs player. Of course, this isn't just about the homers. PCA is three steals away from becoming the seventh player to have a 40-40 season in MLB history.
2) Elly De La Cruz, Reds (not ranked)
Instead of an explanation, we could have just made you watch the 457-foot home run that De La Cruz tattooed on Monday night, a majestic blast that reportedly bounced out of Great American Ball Park. But we will give you statistics anyhow, because De La Cruz deserves them. Since the All-Star break, he is hitting .303/.386/.550 with a .936 OPS and a 154 wRC+, both top 10 marks among qualified hitters. What is most impressive is the way the switch-hitting shortstop is mashing left-handed pitching. His 1.051 OPS against southpaws is second behind the Orioles' Coby Mayo among hitters to take at least 150 PA against lefties. Last year, De La Cruz had a mere .618 OPS against lefties. Talk about an improvement.
3) Junior Caminero, Rays (4)
This time last week, Caminero was still searching for the first walk-off hit of his career. Then, in a five-day span, the 23-year-old swatted two dramatic walk-off home runs. The first sent Tampa Bay to the postseason, and the second came off a 100.4 mph fastball, one of just 14 home runs against a pitch 100+ mph in the Majors this season. The latter included a memorable 40.65-second trip around the bases, the slowest tracked by Statcast on an undisputed homer/trot. In all, Caminero now leads the AL with 41 home runs and is the second-youngest player with two 40+ homer seasons, behind only Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews (1953-54).
4) Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres (6)
Few early-season developments were as confounding as the power outage that befell Tatis. But when the dam broke, the floodgates opened. Tatis slugged his first home run of the season on May 30 and his .550 slugging percentage since that day is seventh best among qualified hitters. He made significant changes in the batter's box, returning to an open stance that allows him to pull the ball in the air, maximizing his 97th-percentile hard-hit rate. It's also noteworthy that Tatis is swinging a significantly faster bat than he did last year: His 76.4 mph average bat speed is in the 96th percentile of MLB and only two qualified hitters have improved their bat speed more from 2025 to 2026.
5) Yordan Alvarez, Astros (2)
It's funny what a "slump" looks like for Alvarez, who is hitting .269/.404/.454 with a 131 wRC+ in 38 games since Aug. 1. Those are good numbers -- he's been 31% better than the league-average hitter -- but they're not quite Alvarez caliber. He still has a shot at the AL Triple Crown, though it will come down to the wire. Alvarez leads the league with a .310 batting average, shades ahead of the Rays' Chandler Simpson (.308). Meanwhile, Alvarez's 39 home runs are second to Caminero (41), and his 98 RBIs are second behind the Orioles' Pete Alonso (101). But a hitter as fearsome as Alvarez is certainly capable of closing the regular season on a tear. No player has won the Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.
6) Pete Alonso, Orioles (3)
Talk about a weird 48 hours. On Monday, the Polar Bear returned to Citi Field for the first time since signing a five-year deal with the Orioles last December. The Mets' all-time home run leader received one boisterous ovation after the other -- even following his game-tying ninth-inning blast on Tuesday, the 300th home run of his career. The long ball propelled the O's to an extra-inning win and, at this point, Alonso is almost single-handedly keeping them alive in the playoff race. He's played in all 152 games this season with 36 home runs and an AL-best 101 RBIs, his fourth time crossing the 100-RBI plateau in the last five years.
7) Randy Arozarena, Mariners (NR)
Arozarena will hit the free-agent market this winter as one of the best available bats on the heels of a resurgent season. His 147 wRC+ is fourth in the Majors behind only Crow-Armstrong, Alvarez and Willson Contreras, and he's also been a top 10 hitter by Statcast's batting run value metric. Through 144 games, Arozarena is hitting .277/.373/.477 with 25 home runs and an .850 OPS that would be a career best in a qualified single season. In fact, the last time he had an OPS above .800 was 2021, when he won the AL Rookie of the Year Award with the Rays.
8) Ben Rice, Yankees (NR)
Although his production dipped during a midseason lull, Rice is back to being a force in the batter's box. He's hitting .342 with a .948 OPS over the last three and a half weeks, raising his season totals to .262/.357/.525 with 38 home runs and 92 RBIs. Rice will try to become the third Yankees player to hit 40+ home runs in a single season in the last 14 years, joining Aaron Judge -- who has done so five times -- and Juan Soto, who launched 41 homers in 2024.
9) Bryce Harper, Phillies (5)
So much of the consternation that surrounded Harper in the offseason focused on the way teams pitched him. Not much has changed there: His 42.3% zone rate ranks second lowest among 293 hitters to see at least 1,000 pitches this year. What has changed, though, is that Harper is doing damage against the pitches that he does get a chance to hit. He has a .623 slugging percentage against pitches in the strike zone and has accrued the most run value against four-seam fastballs of any hitter in the Majors.
10) Jake Bauers, Brewers (NR)
Bauers may very well be the best hitter you've never heard of. The 30-year-old journeyman entered the year with an 84 OPS+ across parts of six MLB seasons; this year, his 144 OPS+ is eighth among qualified hitters, and he's powering baseball's best team, too. How is he doing it? It's a lot about swinging the bat fast -- at 76.5 mph, Bauers' average bat speed is in the 93rd percentile of MLB -- and making excellent swing decisions, which has led to elite power. With 26 home runs this year, Bauers has more than doubled his previous single-season career high (12 homers, done three times).
Others receiving votes: Alex Bregman (Cubs), William Contreras (Brewers), Travis Bazzana (Guardians), Kazuma Okamoto (Blue Jays), Ronald Acuña Jr. (Braves), Juan Soto (Mets), Willson Contreras (Red Sox), James Wood (Nationals), Carter Jensen (Royals), Riley Greene (Tigers), Jackson Chourio (Brewers), Jackson Merrill (Padres),
Voters: David Adler, Jared Greenspan, Brent Maguire, Brian Murphy, Max Ralph, Manny Randhawa, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Andrew Simon