Rays offer – A reported Tampa Bay proposal built around Junior Caminero and Carson Williams shows how close the Angels may have been to changing their Ohtani fate—until owner Arte Moreno shut down any trade involving the two-way star. What followed shaped three years of bo
When the Los Angeles Angels sat in a room making calls about Shohei Ohtani. someone glanced up at a TV report and saw the decision that ended the possibility of a trade. Inside that moment was a fork in franchise history—and a warning that the biggest what-ifs in baseball rarely come with a second chance.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Thursday morning that the Tampa Bay Rays had offered the Angels a package centered on two prospects they valued highly: Junior Caminero and Carson Williams. At the time of the talks. Caminero was 19 and playing Double-A. and he is now one of baseball’s most exciting young sluggers. Williams was 20 and in High A. Rosenthal reported the offer was centered on those two top prospects—while also implying the Rays were prepared to add more talent beyond them.
Angel front office personnel who could not speak publicly confirmed to MISRYOUM that discussions happened and that Caminero’s name was floated in the talks. Rosenthal reported that the Angels would have wanted additional talent, which the Rays were reportedly willing to offer.
The Rays, however, were not the only team involved in Ohtani trade discussions. The key detail. according to a front office staffer. came during the Angels’ call-making process: front office brass were all in a room taking calls for Ohtani when they looked over to a TV and saw reports that owner Arte Moreno shut down the possibility of any trade involving the two-way phenom.
That shutdown is the moment many Angels fans still point to as a turning point from the 2023 season—a franchise misstep that has been harped on ever since the Angels ultimately lost Ohtani for nothing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency after the 2023 season.
The trade that didn’t happen could have redrawn both teams’ paths. If the Angels had gotten Caminero and Williams—and added additional talent as Rosenthal reported they would have wanted—it would have given them two young core building blocks to place alongside Zach Neto in the infield.
And if Ohtani had been shipped out, the Angels would have likely turned into sellers at the 2023 trade deadline. That matters because the report spells out what those actions might have prevented: the club wouldn’t have made the ill-fated moves for Lucas Giolito. Reynaldo López. CJ Cron. Randal Grichuk and Dominic Leone.
Tampa Bay’s case was built on a different kind of need: the Rays, who opened that season with 13 straight wins and had World Series aspirations, would have slotted Ohtani into a rotation that already included a healthy Tyler Glasnow, Shane Mclanahan at his peak and Zach Eflin.
But the details that followed are why the trade discussion never settled comfortably in the “best outcome” category. Rosenthal reported that, even if it had happened, it would have ended disastrously for Tampa Bay.
Mclanahan was lost for the remainder of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on Aug. 2. Two weeks later, shortstop Wander Franco went on the restricted list as part of an investigation into his inappropriate relationship with a minor.
Ohtani’s own timeline would have been brutal for a team thinking in half-season terms. The report says Ohtani tore his right UCL on Aug. 23 and underwent the second major elbow procedure of his career a month later. In that window, a small-market team like the Rays may have been treating him as a half-season rental.
The sequence of what went wrong—and what did not—now reads differently with time. The Rays weathered that storm, held onto their top prospects, and now find themselves back at the top of the AL East three years later.
Caminero is at the center of that rebound story. Through this season, he has 13 home runs and 27 RBIs on a .865 OPS across 210 plate appearances. The report also notes that he was one of the breakout stars for the Dominican Republic during the World Baseball Classic this spring.
It also points to a fuller arc that some casual fans may have missed. Before the season, Caminero said his goal was to hit 40 home runs. He reached that mark by early August—at Angel Stadium. of all places—and finished in the top five in the American League in both homers and RBIs during his first All-Star campaign.
The Angels, for their part, are still dealing with the other side of that unresolved trade history. They have continued to flounder and own the worst record in the big leagues at 17-33.
Between the rumored proposal and the reported shutdown, the gap isn’t just talent. It’s the difference between building around young pieces and spending years living with the consequences of a decision that arrived mid-call, on a TV screen, before the trade could ever take shape.
Shohei Ohtani trade Los Angeles Angels Tampa Bay Rays Junior Caminero Carson Williams Arte Moreno Lucas Giolito Reynaldo López CJ Cron Randal Grichuk Dominic Leone World Series AL East