Claudia Collins
Cam Caminiti is one of the most exciting prospects in this year’s MLB draft even at 17 years old and with only three years of high school experience.
The No. 17 draft prospect has dominated at Saguaro High School in Scottsdale. Across 52.2 innings in 2024, Caminiti went 9-0 with a minuscule 0.93 ERA. With a career 1.94 ERA during his time in high school, Caminiti decided it would be best to declare for the draft and class up to 2024, rather than waiting to complete his senior year in 2025.
“It was overall just about my development and facing better competition sooner. I had a few conversations with my dad, my mom, my advisor,” Caminiti said. “We decided just to class up, face better competition sooner.”
Classing up came with challenges. Caminiti had to finish two years of high school in one year, to have all of the credits necessary to be draft-eligible, creating a difficult workload on top of practices, games and workouts.
“A lot of teams have noted that. A typical senior has maybe four classes, so they have all this time to train,” Cam’s father, Dom Caminiti, said. “[Cam] had seven classes every day. He had to go to the early zero hour [period before school]. He’s still finishing Algebra-Trig…and that’s four or five hours a day of a commitment”
The workload was not too much for Caminiti, who has always had the maturity and work ethic to improve himself, rather than taking his talent for granted.
“Comparing him to other guys, he’s kind of just a one-of-one type of individual from a talent standpoint,” Saguaro head coach Joe Muecke said. “But that just came with an absolute tremendous amount of hard work in his routines and how he was preparing himself”
In addition to his performance on the mound, Caminiti was also a force to be reckoned with in the batter’s box. In 2024, Caminiti hit .493 with an OPS of 1.505. With the emergence of Shohei Ohtani in the MLB, more players are seeing hitting and pitching at the professional level to be a viable option.
“I want to two-way [hit and pitch],” Caminiti said. “I talked to a lot of teams about that. They would always ask, ‘Do you want to be a two-way still?’ and I’d tell them, ‘yeah.’”
Caminiti participated in the Draft Combine at Chase Field last month, where he got the chance to demonstrate his on field abilities, but also talk to front offices to show what kind of person he is off the field.
“Obviously we’re incredibly proud of the success Cam has had on the field, but I don’t think he’d be in this spot if he wasn’t as mature as he is,” Dom Caminiti said. “What we heard the most this season is just what a good kid he is…As a parent, there is nothing better that you can hear.”
Caminiti’s family has seen success in the MLB. His cousin Ken Caminiti played in the majors for 15 years, making four all-star appearances and winning the 1996 MVP. The cousins were never able to meet, however, as Ken unfortunately passed away in 2004, two years prior to Cam’s birth.
Caminiti will be in Texas for the draft, which starts on July 14th. While he would love to be selected by his childhood favorite Cubs, who own the 14th overall pick, he understands that at this point, his future has many possible paths.
“[I] do everything I can to my best ability,” Caminiti said. “Whatever happens, happens. I’m just taking it day by day and hoping whatever team believes in me the most will pick me.”
