With 4 screamers, Caminero wows hometown crowd -- and Cash -- in Classic warmup

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The World Baseball Classic hasn’t even officially started yet, and Junior Caminero is already making a powerful impression on the international stage.

Caminero went 4-for-4 in the Dominican Republic team’s 12-4 win over the Tigers on Tuesday night at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal in Santo Domingo, Caminero’s hometown. The Rays’ All-Star third baseman, serving as the Dominican squad’s designated hitter, bashed a home run and ripped three singles in the exhibition victory.

In classic Caminero fashion, the balls came screaming off his bat. His first two singles were hit at 110.1 and 112.5 mph, and his home run had an exit velocity of 107.8 mph. But Caminero saved his hardest hit for last, crushing a 118.5 mph single in his final at-bat of the night.

For context, Caminero’s highest recorded exit velocity in a Major League game is 116.7 mph, which he reached on a double off now-teammate Yoendrys Gómez (then with the White Sox) on Sept. 9. He also hit a 117.2 mph single for Triple-A Durham in 2024.

How rare is that kind of display of power? There have been only eight instances, regular season or postseason, since Statcast began tracking in 2015 when a player had a four-hit game in which all the hits had an exit velocity of 107 mph or greater. The most recent one was Shohei Ohtani’s “50-50” game against the Marlins in 2024.

For the Rays, it was no surprise. But it was still a sight to behold.

“Holy smokes, he’s impressive. We need to get him to the postseason,” manager Kevin Cash said Wednesday before the Rays’ 11-8 exhibition defeat to the Netherlands’ WBC squad at Charlotte Sports Park. “It could be pretty exciting to watch him, because he certainly brightens up the brighter the lights.”

Indeed, Caminero seems to be made for big moments despite being only 22 years old with 204 games of Major League experience. He became a viral sensation after hitting a championship-winning home run and taking a long trip around the bases in the Dominican Winter League last offseason, then he earned national recognition as he slugged 45 home runs, started the All-Star Game and finished as the Home Run Derby runner-up last year.

Now, he’s poised for a potentially special run with the star-studded Dominican squad. Caminero didn’t miss a beat in Wednesday’s exhibition against the Tigers, recording a 101.1 mph triple in his first at-bat and a 105.4 mph single in his second trip to the plate.

It would hardly shock anyone if Caminero seizes the spotlight in the WBC with a star turn like Randy Arozarena put together for Team Mexico in the 2023 tournament.

If his tuneup performance was any indication, Caminero is ready to do exactly that.

“He belongs,” Cash said.

Camp notes
• Center fielder Cedric Mullins was scratched from Wednesday’s starting lineup due to lower back tightness. Jacob Melton got the start in his place. Cash said Mullins “tweaked” his back during a pregame workout and reported some tightness.

“Not the time to push it,” Cash said. “He’ll get treatment. We’ll take it day to day, see how he is.”

• Starter Steven Matz pitched three innings of live batting practice on a back field Wednesday afternoon. The Rays use those back-field outings as a way to build up their pitchers’ endurance in a more controlled environment, and Matz said it gave him more freedom to tinker with a few things in his arsenal.

“I think it’s cool to do that this time of camp,” Matz said. “When you’re trying to work on things and implement some of this stuff, it’s a little bit easier to do that in that type of setting.”

• Non-roster right-hander Jake Woodford allowed seven runs (six earned) on six hits while striking out two in 2 1/3 innings as he continues his bid for a long-relief job on the Opening Day roster. Woodford felt he pitched better than his line might indicate, and Cash commended him for continuing to throw strikes even after a barrage of early hits by the Netherlands lineup.

• The Rays swept their split-squad matchups on Tuesday, but Cash called for improved play -- cleaner play, specifically -- after Wednesday’s loss.

“We've got to start playing a little bit better baseball. We're not doing too many things well. We're not pitching, we're not playing defense, and our hitting [has been] not that great, either,” Cash said. “We're having too many sloppy innings [where] one error turns into two or three runs. That's generally not us. So we've got time, but we've got to start turning some things in a better direction.”