The Rays just clinched the AL East at Yankee Stadium, and Junior Caminero was asked the obvious follow-up: who would you rather face in October, the Yankees or the Red Sox?
His answer amounted to a shrug. He does not care. He thinks Tampa Bay wins either way.
That is either the most confident thing a 23-year-old has said this September or the most accurate. It might be both.
He Has Earned the Right to Talk That Way
Caminero has the résumé to back it up. He is a legitimate AL MVP candidate on a team that just locked up the No. 1 seed at 96-61.
He started the All-Star Game at third base for the second consecutive year. He won AL Player of the Month in June after hitting .327 with a .402 on-base percentage and a .673 slugging mark, with 10 home runs and 24 RBIs in that stretch alone.
On July 1, at 22 years old, he homered in his sixth straight game and passed Ken Griffey Jr. as the youngest player in history to do it.
Players who do that get to sound unbothered.
The Rays Have Already Beaten Both of Them
This is where the quote stops being bravado and starts being math. Tampa Bay finished six games clear of the Yankees in the division. They clinched in the Bronx, in the second game of a doubleheader, behind an 11-strikeout Drew Rasmussen start that carried a no-hitter into the seventh.
The Red Sox are in as a wild card. The Rays are in as the top seed with a bye.
Caminero is simply stating the standings.
Why the Bye Changes Everything
Whoever survives the Yankees-Red Sox Wild Card Series arrives at Tampa Bay’s doorstep having burned their best arms and played high-leverage baseball for three straight days.
Meanwhile Kevin Cash gets to set his rotation, rest his bullpen, and pick his matchups. For a team built on pitching depth and platoon advantages, that head start is enormous.
The Larger Point About This Rays Team
Tampa Bay held first place for 88 consecutive days starting in late June and went 40-19 after July 20. They were dismissed before the season, as they always are, and they ran the division anyway.
Caminero’s indifference is the tell. This clubhouse does not think it is the plucky underdog anymore. It thinks it is the best team in the American League.
Based on the last three months, the burden of proof is on everybody else.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.