The Dodgers originally signed Jair Camargo as a 16-year-old out of Colombia. He made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League, hitting .250/.309/.346 (.654) with eight extra-base hits in 41 games. Over the next three seasons, he climbed the Dodgers' organizational ladder, continuing to be young for each level. In 2019, he played 79 games at Low-A with a .642 OPS as a 19-year-old.
Minnesota acquired Camargo along with Kenta Maeda for Brusdar Graterol and Luke Raley. His organizational debut was forced to wait until 2021, when he spent the season at High-A. Camargo was 1.5 years younger than the average age of the competition, and he posted a .697 OPS, which was his best total in a full-season league. His numbers still weren't impressive, but the team hoped he could continue to improve as he got closer to Target Field.
In 2022, Camargo seems to have put it all together, and he's doing it at Double-A. He returned to Cedar Rapids for the season's start, where he hit .296/.314/.496 (.809) with 11 extra-base hits in 28 games. Minnesota promoted him to Double-A, and his bat got even hotter with Wichita. In his first 32 Double-A games, he hit ten home runs, and he's over two years younger than the average age of the competition. Over 73% of his at-bats have come against older pitchers, which makes his performance even more impressive.
Defensively, Camargo spends most of his time at catcher, but he has also seen time at first and third base. For the season, he has thrown out 35% of attempted base stealers. Since joining the Twins organization, he has yet to post a fielding percentage below .982 at any level, and he has a .979 fielding percentage in his catching career. He is indeed a prospect to watch by adding his improving offensive skills to a solid catching frame.
Currently, Twins Daily doesn't rank Camargo as one of the team's top-30 prospects, which points to how much his season came out of nowhere. MLB Pipeline recently updated their top-30 list, and Camargo was also absent from their rankings. If he continues to play this well, it will be hard to keep him off these lists entering the 2023 season.
In recent years, Ryan Jeffers has been the top catching prospect to come through the Twins organization. Jeffers made his debut in 2020 as a 23-year-old after hitting .264/.341/.421 (.762) at High- and Double-A in 2019. If the Twins follow a similar development plan, Camargo has a chance to debut in 2023, especially if there are injuries at the big-league level.
If Minnesota wants to keep Camargo, he must be added to the 40-man roster this winter. There are plenty of other prospects the Twins will need to consider adding before the Rule 5 Draft, including Simeon Woods Richardson, Matt Canterino, Matt Wallner, and Louie Varland. Young catchers with big bats are not easily acquired, so the Twins will need to evaluate if his power surge is real before making a roster decision.
Do you think Camargo has put himself into the team's long-term plans? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.
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