ST. PETERSBURG -- The best team in the American League this season was unsurprisingly represented well on this year’s All-MLB First and Second Teams.
Rays third baseman Junior Caminero was named to the All-MLB First Team, while starter Drew Rasmussen and closer Bryan Baker claimed spots on the All-MLB Second Team. Only the World Series champion Brewers, with four, had more selections than the AL champion Rays. No other team had more than two.
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The 2026 All-MLB Team, recognizing and commemorating the top performances during the regular season, was announced during the The MLB Awards presented by MGM Rewards on Wednesday night at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The squads were determined through fan voting on MLB.com and a decorated panel of media members, broadcasters, former players and other officials throughout the game.
Unlike the All-Star teams, selections were made taking into account the entire regular season, with no regard for league affiliation. The Rays had eight nominees on the ballot and wound up with three players getting the nod.
That’s no small feat for the Rays, especially considering they had only four players make the First and Second Teams since the All-MLB Team Awards were introduced in 2019. Previously, reliever Nick Anderson (‘20) was Tampa Bay’s only First Team selection.
That is no longer the case, as Caminero received the honor as the Majors’ top third baseman. He certainly earned the recognition by slugging 42 homers, driving in 101 runs and slashing .276/.360/.524 while starting all 162 games at third base for the Rays.
Caminero was the driving force behind the AL East champions and pushed them to the top of the AL standings with his incredible power and undeniable flair for the dramatic. Caminero was a Second Team selection last year, but he improved his overall approach at the plate this season, allowing him to work more walks while maintaining his power production.
Caminero, 23, authored some unforgettable moments this season. He went deep in the Rays’ return to a rebuilt Tropicana Field on April 6. He homered in six straight games from June 25-July 1 amid a stretch with 10 home runs in nine games and 11 in 11. He started the All-Star Game and took part in the Home Run Derby for a second straight year.
Arguably Caminero’s finest moment came on Sept. 11 at the Trop, where he bashed the first walk-off homer of his career to clinch Tampa Bay’s first trip to the postseason since 2023.
But this honor was not granted to Caminero alone. Rasmussen and Baker made the Second Team, joining Caminero (2025), second baseman Brandon Lowe (‘20) and starter Charlie Morton (‘19) as the only Rays to achieve the feat.
Rasmussen couldn’t crack the First Team rotation of Jacob Misiorowski, Cam Schlittler, Chris Sale, Dylan Cease and Cristopher Sánchez, but he joined fellow aces Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Sonny Gray, Tarik Skubal and Jesús Luzardo on the Second Team.
Rasmussen was better than ever for the Rays, going 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA in 172 innings over 30 starts. Tampa Bay won each of the second-time All-Star’s final 12 regular-season starts, and he set the tone for the club’s pennant-winning postseason with a dominant outing against the Yankees in Game 1 of the AL Division Series.
What Rasmussen started was often finished by Baker, the All-Star closer who tied for the Major League lead with 41 saves while posting a 1.44 ERA in 62 1/3 innings over 65 appearances. The right-hander joined Guardians closer Cade Smith on the Second Team, with Padres closer Mason Miller and the Blue Jays’ Louis Varland earning the First Team’s two bullpen spots.
Baker didn’t even begin the season as the Rays’ closer, but he became arguably the most stable ninth-inning arm in baseball by the middle of May. His last blown save came on May 13 in Toronto. After that, he reeled off 30 straight successful save opportunities through the end of the regular season -- plus five more in the playoffs.
The Rays had five other nominees on the All-MLB Team ballot who didn’t crack the First or Second Team: first baseman Jonathan Aranda, catcher Liam Hicks, designated hitter Yandy Díaz, left fielder Chandler Simpson and starter Nick Martinez.