Rays prospect’s spring training breakout is just more ammo for Albert Pujols

As the calendar flips to March, we're beginning to get a sense of which players are set to seize the spring training spotlight. And no one has seized it harder so far than Tampa Bay Rays infielder Junior Caminero.

One of the top prospects in the game entering last season, everyone was anxious to see how Caminero would do when he inevitably arrived in the big leagues. That moment came last August, and the results were ... fine: Caminero held his own at the plate, putting up a 105 OPS+ (five percent better than league average) with six homers in 43 games — not too bad for a 21-year-old. Still, it felt like there was more to unlock given his prodigious physical gifts and eye-popping numbers in the Minors.

This winter, we started to see him unlock it in real time, with a monster performance in the Dominican Winter League capped off by a game-winning homer — and instantly iconic bat flip — in the top of the ninth inning of the championship game.

This was the Caminero everybody had waited to see, with power to every part of the park combined with metric tons of swag. And he's carried that over to Rays camp, going deep twice in Tampa's game on Sunday to raise his spring OPS to a ridiculous 1.446. It sure seems like something clicked in the young righty between the end of last season and the beginning of this one — which, when you consider who he was taking lessons from — should come as no surprise.

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Junior Caminero breakout doing wonders for Albert Pujols' managerial resume

Caminero's manager with Leones was none other than former St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Angels legend Albert Pujols, who led the team to a Winter League title over rival Licey this winter. Pujols has long dreamed of managing in the Majors, and this was one heck of a test run, one that helped earn him the job managing the Dominican national team at next year's World Baseball Classic.

At this point, it seems like a matter of when, not if, a team taps Pujols to lead the dugout despite his lack of big-league coaching experience. He's clearly got the demeanor and the track record as a player, and Caminero's breakout for Leones should be just one more feather in his cap.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Caminero was always going to erupt this year. Again, he was ranked as one of the top prospects in the sport at this time last year, and he at least held his own against big-league pitching before he could legally buy himself a beer. But it doesn't feel like a coincidence that the eruption happened to come under Pujols' watch; really, what better teacher for a young righty slugger to have than arguably the greatest right-handed hitter of all-time?

We have ample evidence at this point that Pujols knows how to command and manage a clubhouse, and how to make big decisions in big games under the brightest lights. But his ability to help develop talent and get the best out of his players is also a huge part of his case as a manager, one that Caminero is making for him very forcefully right now.