Ranking Junior Caminero to Rays and MLB's 10 Most Lopsided Trades in Recent History

The Tampa Bay Rays have one of baseball's brightest young stars in slugger Junior Caminero, but he could have been playing on the other side of their ALCS matchup with the Cleveland Guardians.

The Guardians traded an 18-year-old Caminero who was still in the lower levels of the minors to the Rays for pitcher Tobias Myers on Nov. 19, 2021, in what has become one of the most lopsided trades in recent history.

What other one-sided deals make the top 10?

We've dug into the last decade of MLB trade history prior to 2026, as the dust is still settling on those deals, and ranked the 10 most lopsided trades.

To SD: OF Juan Soto, 1B Josh Bell To WAS: SS CJ Abrams, OF James Wood, LHP MacKenzie Gore, OF Robert Hassell III, RHP Jarlin Susana, 1B Luke Voit

Juan Soto joined the Padres as a bona fide superstar with two additional years of club control remaining. He helped San Diego reach the 2022 NLCS.

However, anything short of a World Series title was going to make this a lopsided trade.

CJ Abrams and James Wood have emerged as All-Stars and franchise cornerstones for the Nationals, while MacKenzie Gore developed into their de facto ace before he was flipped as the centerpiece of his own blockbuster deal.

The Padres ended up going 82-80 in 2023. They cut their losses ahead of Soto's final year of club control, trading him to the Yankees for a five-player package that included Michael King.

9. Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen to the Marlins

To STL: OF Marcell Ozuna To MIA: RHP Sandy Alcantara, RHP Zac Gallen, OF Magneuris Sierra, LHP Daniel Castano

This trade brought the Cardinals two productive seasons from Marcell Ozuna, who posted a 107 OPS+ while averaging 26 home runs, 89 RBI and 2.3 WAR, but they missed the playoffs in his first season and were swept in the NLCS the following year.

Since the trade, Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen have both logged over 1,000 innings in the majors and produced at a frontline level.

Alcantara won 2022 NL Cy Young honors and now stands as Miami's franchise leader in starts (202), strikeouts (1,074) and innings pitched (1,281.0). Gallen was flipped for Jazz Chisholm Jr. in a one-for-one swap and settled in as the ace of the D-backs staff, finishing top 10 in Cy Young voting three times and helping them reach the 2023 World Series.

To BOS: IF Vaughn Grissom To ATL: LHP Chris Sale, cash

Chris Sale pitched a total of 48.1 innings from 2020-22 before returning in 2023 with a middling 4.30 ERA over 102.2 innings, so when he was traded to the Braves, it looked like a logical salary dump that brought back an intriguing change-of-scenery candidate in Vaughn Grissom.

Sale then promptly had the best season of his career, going 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177.2 innings to win a long-awaited first Cy Young Award and the NL pitching Triple Crown. He was entering the final season of his contract at the time of the trade, but he signed a two-year, $38 million extension a few days after the trade was completed.

Grissom hit .190/.246/.219 with a negative-0.1 WAR in 31 games with the Red Sox.

A Possible Trade Made by Every Team This Offseason ⚾

To MIA: OF Lewis Brinson, OF Monte Harrison, 2B Isan Díaz, RHP Jordan Yamamoto To MIL: OF Christian Yelich

Christian Yelich was the third domino to fall during the Marlins' 2017-18 offseason fire sale, following Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna out the door. He brought back a prospect package headlined by outfielder Lewis Brinson, who began the 2018 season as the No. 18 prospect in baseball.

A productive everyday player in Miami, Yelich immediately became one of the best players in baseball, winning NL MVP honors in 2018 and finishing runner-up in 2019 while winning the batting title both years.

His production dipped from there, but he has piled up 27.5 WAR in nine seasons in Milwaukee while earning a nine-year, $215 million extension through 2028. The four prospects who went to Miami recorded a combined negative-6.8 WAR in 581 big league games.

To LAD: RP Josh Fields To HOU: DH Yordan Alvarez

The Dodgers signed Yordan Alvarez as an amateur international free agent on June 15. Less than two months later, before he ever played a game for the organization, he was flipped to the Astros for reliever Josh Fields.

To their credit, Fields was a useful arm out of the Los Angeles bullpen over parts of three seasons, logging a 2.61 ERA over 124 appearances.

However, the Astros got one of the best offensive players in the sport. It didn't take him long to arrive, as he burst onto the scene and won the 2019 AL Rookie of the Year honors. After making a run at the AL Triple Crown this year while hitting .316/42/106, he is expected to add an AL MVP award to his trophy case.

To TB: IF Curtis Mead To PHI: LHP Cristopher Sánchez

The scales on this deal appeared to tip aggressively in the Rays' favor when Curtis Mead emerged as a consensus Top 100 prospect just a few years later, but he never quite found his footing in Tampa Bay.

On the flip side, Cristopher Sánchez was never even a top-15 prospect in the Philadelphia farm system prior to debuting in 2021. He broke through in 2023, became a full-time member of the rotation in 2024 and has put together back-to-back 8.1-WAR seasons over the last two years as one of the best pitchers in baseball.

He signed a six-year, $107 million extension that could keep him in Philadelphia through 2033. While Mead resurfaced this year with the Nationals before he was traded to the Red Sox at the deadline, there's little doubt about who won this trade.

To CLE: RHP Tobias Myers To TB: 3B Junior Caminero

Junior Caminero played 43 games for Cleveland's affiliate in the Dominican Summer League before the Rays flipped him for Tobias Myers during the 2021-22 offseason.

Myers was subsequently sent to San Francisco in exchange for cash considerations in July, with a 6.00 ERA over 14 Triple-A starts. That was the extent of his action in Cleveland.

Caminero hit .324 with 31 home runs between High-A and Double-A in 2023 to emerge as one of the top prospects in baseball. He's now working on back-to-back 40-homer seasons in the big leagues despite the fact that he is still only 23 years old.

To NYM: SS Javier Báez, RHP Trevor Williams, cash To CHC: OF Pete Crow-Armstrong

The Mets were 55-48 at the time of this trade, good for a four-game lead in the NL East standings. To his credit, Javier Báez was a terrific pickup, posting a 140 OPS+ with 18 extra-base hits and 1.7 WAR in 47 games.

However, the Mets went 22-37 the rest of the way to miss the playoffs. Báez walked in free agency that offseason and signed with the Tigers.

For what ended up being an inconsequential two-month rental, the Mets gave up presumptive 2026 NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong. The 24-year-old had 45 home runs, 41 steals and an NL-leading 156 OPS+ in a 9.8-WAR season. He is now the face of the franchise for the North Siders.

To CWS: RHP James Shields, cash To SD: OF Fernando Tatis Jr., RHP Erik Johnson

The White Sox signed Fernando Tatis Jr. out of the Dominican Republic for $700,000 on July 2, 2015, but he was traded to the Padres before ever making his professional debut.

With a 29-27 record at the time of the trade, the White Sox were chasing relevance, but veteran James Shields was not the answer to fortify their rotation. He logged a 6.77 ERA in 22 starts following the trade. The South Siders finished below .500 and missed the playoffs. After signing for two additional years, Shields posted a 5.31 ERA in 436 total innings in Chicago.

In eight years since breaking through into the big leagues, Fernando Tatis Jr. has tallied 31.6 WAR with three All-Star selections, two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers. He has a 136 OPS+ with 177 home runs and 162 steals.

To BOS: OF Alex Verdugo, SS Jeter Downs, C Connor Wong To LAD: OF Mookie Betts, LHP David Price

Ahead of his final season under club control, and with extension talks at an impasse, the Red Sox traded homegrown superstar Mookie Betts to the Dodgers for a package built around controllable outfielder Alex Verdugo and two top prospects. They also used the deal to unload David Price's remaining contract.

In July, the Dodgers locked Betts up with a 12-year, $365 million extension. Over seven years with the team, he has piled up 36.5 WAR and won three World Series rings to solidify his status as one of the best players of his generation.

Verdugo posted a 105 OPS+ and 8.1 WAR over four seasons in Boston. He never took the next step to emerge as a star. Jeter Downs played 14 games in the majors for the Red Sox, while Connor Wong has 4.2 WAR in 425 games and remains a member of the Red Sox.

That's 12.3 WAR in exchange for a generational talent who the Red Sox never should have let get away in the first place.