{"id":934661,"date":"2026-10-16T02:29:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T02:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/934661\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T02:29:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T02:29:40","slug":"al-central-notes-caminero-melton-white-sox-holderman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/934661\/","title":{"rendered":"AL Central Notes: Caminero, Melton, White Sox, Holderman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ALCS matchup between the Guardians and Rays has put the spotlight back on one of the most infamous trades in Cleveland baseball history \u2014 the November 2021 swap<\/a> that sent Junior Caminero<\/a> to Tampa Bay in exchange for right-hander Tobias Myers<\/a>, who never threw a big league pitch in a Guards uniform.\u00a0 Myers was dealt to the Giants in July 2022, and Myers\u2019 emergence as a quality reliever with the Brewers in 2024 was an added blow for the Guards, who \u201ccouldn\u2019t believe they lost the trade twice,\u201d according to The Athletic\u2019s Zack Meisel and Will Sammon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In their look back at how the seemingly minor Caminero-for-Myers swap developed, Meisel\/Sammon noted that the Rays discussed Xzavion Curry<\/a> and three other prospects (none of whom are still with the Guardians) before finally settling on Caminero.\u00a0 The future All-Star was then a lightly-regarded 18-year-old prospect who had signed with Cleveland out of the Dominican Republic in 2019.\u00a0 Rays scout Eduardo Sanchez was given particular credit for being high on Caminero\u2019s attitude and maturity, and other Tampa evaluators liked what they saw in Caminero\u2019s swing and hitting potential.\u00a0 The end result was a steal for the Rays, and the Guardians can only hope that this trade doesn\u2019t continue to haunt them by swinging a pennant in Tampa\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

As the Guardians take a 2-1 lead in the ALCS, here\u2019s more from around the AL Central\u2026<\/p>\n

Troy Melton<\/a> was placed on the Tigers\u2019 15-day injured list on September 21 due to right forearm tightness, but the team announced to media today that Melton isn\u2019t dealing with any structural damage, and will be able to have a normal offseason.\u00a0 Between this forearm issue and some elbow inflammation that cost him the first two months of the season, Melton was limited to 114 1\/3 innings in 2026, but he was still effective in posting a 2.76 ERA over 20 starts (albeit with a low 20% strikeout rate and the benefit of a .248 BABIP).\u00a0 Melton projects to be part of Detroit\u2019s rotation next year.
\nThe White Sox expect to bring back their coaching staff in 2027, GM Chris Getz told the Chicago Sun-Times\u2019 James Fegan<\/a> and other reporters at yesterday\u2019s season wrap-up press conference.\u00a0 \u201cI think about the last offseason and the amount of interviewing and hires that we made, and that certainly has paid off,\u201d Getz said. \u201cNow to have really talented coaches\u2026in our locker room is something that is perhaps a separator for us.\u00a0 And now to really stabilize that, to have that going forward, I think is going to benefit us.\u201d\u00a0 (MLBTR covered more from Getz\u2019s press conference in a post yesterday<\/a>.)
\nWe\u2019ll begin and end the post with Guardians items, as right-hander Colin Holderman<\/a> underwent his right wrist surgery today.\u00a0 Holderman revealed<\/a> the upcoming procedure two weeks ago, and MLB.com\u2019s Tim Stebbins<\/a> confirmed today that the procedure isn\u2019t expected to impact Holderman\u2019s regular offseason throwing progression or his availability for the start of Spring Training.\u00a0 This positive news likely ends any chance that Cleveland would non-tender Holderman, who is arbitration-eligible and projected<\/a> to earn $2.3MM in 2027.\u00a0 Holderman was non-tendered by the Pirates last offseason and then signed by the Guardians to a one-year, $1.5MM contract.\u00a0 The deal proved to be a bargain when Holderman delivered a 2.73 ERA over 52 2\/3 regular-season innings, though his longstanding wrist problems sent him to the IL on September 4 and kept him from participating in Cleveland\u2019s postseason run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ALCS matchup between the Guardians and Rays has put the spotlight back on one of the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,135793,3989,462,82,3972,17941],"class_list":["post-934661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-colin-holderman","tag-junior-caminero","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-tobias-myers","tag-troy-melton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}