Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays finished second in American League MVP voting, receiving 267 points behind unanimous winner Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros. The result marks the highest AL MVP finish in franchise history for the Rays, who reached the World Series this year behind Caminero’s breakout season.
Alvarez swept all 30 first-place votes to capture the award with 420 points, according to MLB.com. Caminero collected 27 second-place votes and three third-place votes for his 267 points, while Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. came in third with 188 points.
The Main Development
Caminero slashed .276/.360/.524 with 42 home runs, 101 RBIs, a 144 OPS+ and 5.8 wins above replacement in 2026. The 23 year old is in his second full major league season, and his previous best AL MVP finish was ninth place a year earlier, per MLB.com.
Alvarez’s case was built on dominance across the league’s major offensive categories. His 181 wRC+ topped the next-closest hitter by 24 points, and he led all of MLB in batting average (.316), on-base percentage (.432), slugging percentage (.601) and walks (109), according to Bleacher Report.
What It Means
Caminero’s runner-up finish is the first top-three AL MVP finish by any Rays player, a distinction MLB.com’s report on the voting results underscored. Tampa Bay won the AL East with a 98-win record, the best mark in the American League, before advancing to the World Series.
Erik Neander, the Rays’ president of baseball operations, praised Caminero’s growth and makeup. “He’s as critical a player to our success as we have. It’s not lost on us what kind of not just talent we have, but what kind of character we have, what kind of professional we have, what kind of drive Junior has within him to not be satisfied with the two unbelievable seasons that he’s had, but just the obsession to continue to get better,” Neander said, per MLB.com.
MLB.com also noted the broader context of the finish, writing that “it wasn’t the result Caminero or the Rays were hoping for, but it was by far the highest AL MVP finish the team has ever had.”
Season-Over-Season Growth
Caminero’s 2026 numbers reflect a more disciplined approach at the plate than his 2025 campaign, when he hit 45 home runs and drove in 110 runs. His walk total nearly doubled, from 41 in 2025 to 79 this season, while his on-base percentage climbed from .311 to .360. His strikeout rate also dropped, from 19.1% to 18.4%.
Those gains in plate discipline, paired with his power numbers, helped push his OPS+ and WAR figures well past his previous season’s production and put him in serious MVP contention for the first time in his career.
What’s Next
With the 2026 awards season now closing out, attention turns to Tampa Bay’s offseason moves as the Rays look to build on a World Series run that included Caminero’s standout year. The Rays’ World Series run featured contributions from pitchers like Drew Rasmussen, who helped Tampa Bay stay alive in the series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Caminero’s postseason performance also drew attention before the World Series began, when he was featured among the World Series MVP odds discussion alongside Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio. Tampa Bay’s path to the Fall Classic ran through a tense ALCS, including a Game 5 win over the Guardians that put the Rays in position to clinch the pennant.
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