Trades in Major League Baseball are always a little more strange than in most other sports. In the NFL, NBA, and NHL, players are traded for other players and draft picks.
But in MLB, players are mainly dealt for prospects. The Cleveland Guardians are fairly consistent traders, but back in 2021, they made a move with the Tampa Bay Rays that is coming back to haunt them in a big way.
As Joe Noga of cleveland.com points out, the Rays' Junior Caminero, after slugging two home runs in the series opener, is making the Guardians' decision in 2021 come back to haunt them at the worst possible time.
Cleveland Should Regret This Trade
Back in 2021, the Guardians completed a trade with the Rays, which sent Tobias Meyers, a reliever, to the Guardians in exchange for Junior Caminero.
Both were prospects at the time, and as Noga writes, "It is generally regarded as one of the club's worst trades under the Chris Antonetti/Mike Chernoff front office regime."
Meyers was released by the Guardians before playing in the Majors in 2022. He later joined the Milwaukee Brewers and found moderate success, which added another unfortunate layer to the Guardians on this poor trade.
But the real kicker is what Caminero has done in Tampa Bay this season. Four years after being traded, the 22-year-old Caminero is an All-Star who is among the league's best power hitters.
He has a .261 batting average with 39 home runs this season, which is top ten in Major League Baseball, and would easily lead the Guardians this season in home runs.
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His latest game was a 4-5 dominating performance in which he hit two home runs, scored four runs, and also hit a double, knocked in three RBIs, and stole a base.
While he's playing third base, and Jose Ramirez is an incredible third baseman for the Guardians, having a player of Caminero's caliber would've been an incredible boon for the Guardians this season.
The offense in Cleveland hasn't been good this season, and a slugger like Caminero, regardless of where he plays on the field, would've been exactly what the team could use this season.
Not only did Caminero further prove the Guardians made a massive mistake trading him away in 2021, but he helped propel the Guardians to losing nine of their last 10 games, putting them six games back of the third wild card spot in the AL.
It was a disastrous trade for Cleveland, and four years later, Caminero is proving, in person, how terrible the trade has gone for the Guardians.
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