Move over, bat flips. Baseball's slow home run trots could have their World Series moment

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Baseball is in a bat-flipping golden era, where players are encouraged to soak up their turns in the spotlight, and Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz and William Contreras are taking bat tossing and slow celebratory trots to new levels this October.

Caminero, the Tampa Bay Rays' budding slugger, took 38.7 seconds to saunter around the bases after an AL Championship Series home run. Famous in baseball circles for his slow, spectacular jaunts, his average trot time is still faster than those of Diaz, his Tampa teammate, and Contreras, a Milwaukee Brewers foe in a World Series that begins Friday night.

Opinions on their leisurely trips home differ across the generations.

“You know what I’d do: Put one right in his ribs next time up,” Hall of Fame relief pitcher Goose Gossage said. “Act like a big leaguer. It’s a real simple deal. Act like you’ve been there and done that before. They act like fools.”

Old-school players may disapprove of the theatrical trots, but a lot has changed since José Bautista's massive bat flip during a 2015 AL Division Series became an inflection point in the debate over sportsmanship vs. celebration. Major League Baseball, determined to embrace its young stars and international flair, has successfully carved out space for viral — and marketable — displays of exuberance.

“The game is different. It’s in a different place, different state,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash, a big league player from 2002-10. "You don’t want to cross the line of showing up the other team. Always show respect for that, but they’re exciting moments and I want our guys to enjoy them."

Caminero's first postseason homer, a two-run drive off the left-field foul pole that gave the Rays a four-run, seventh-inning lead in Monday night's pennant-clinching 7-3 win , resulted in that 38.7-second stroll, the longest tracked uninterrupted postseason home run trot since MLB Statcast started measuring in 2015.

His Trop Trot took more than twice as long as Usain Bolt’s 19.19-second record in the 200-meter dash, longer than the 400-meter relay record of 36.84 seconds set by Jamaica, longer than the 500-meter speed skating record of 33.61 seconds by Pavel Kulizhnikov in 2019.

Caminero turned toward the Rays dugout short of first base, pounded his chest with both fists four times, cupped his right ear after rounding second to hear more cheers and pounded his chest again with his right hand. He stopped ahead of the plate, pointed into the stands at Randy Arozarena and imitated the former Rays star's crossed-arms pose, then crossed home.

“It's hard to really watch, beating on his chest like Tarzan,” Gossage said.

Caminero wasn’t concerned about Gossage's comments.

“Just enjoy the moment,” he said. “Everybody enjoys the moment because I don’t know if the moment is coming (for) us again.”

Caminero holds the regular-season record trot time at 40.65 seconds, set Sept. 15 with his walk-off, ninth-inning drive against the Athletics’ Elvis Alvarado. Statcast's uninterrupted trots don't include balls when a home run was not immediately clear to the batter.

At this rate, the World Series record-long trot seems certain to fall, 31.29 seconds by the New York Yankees’ Juan Soto after going deep off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 of 2024.

Those Rays' trots are modest compared to Caminero's roughly 56-second excursion when he hit a go-ahead homer off the center-field scoreboard in the top of the ninth inning for Tigres del Licey in the deciding Game 7 of the 2025 Dominican Winter League championship. He jumped up and down as if on a pogo stick as he jogged, came to a full stop for celebrations with teammates at first and third, then tossed his helmet as he neared home plate.

Contreras had the slowest average trot time this season at 31.14 seconds, followed by Diaz at 31 seconds. Next were Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Josue DePaula (30.31), Texas’ Joc Pederson (29.64), Seattle’s Arozarena (29.22), San Diego’s Manny Machado (29.05), Houston’s Nelson Velázquez (29.02) and Caminero (28.92).

In an age when Roadrunner sprints are passé, Washington’s Andrew Pinckney sped around the bases in 18.55 seconds for the fastest trot of the season on an over-the-wall homer. His rapid run was on his first big league hit, a home run off Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez on Aug. 6. Pinckney debuted a day earlier.

Adam Rosales of the Oakland Athletics has the three fastest trots on over-the-fence homers since Statcast started, 15.88 seconds on June 25, 2017, 15.9 seconds that April 22 and 15.96 seconds on Sept. 24, 2016.

Caminero claims Diaz’s trots are better than his own, but Diaz wouldn’t accept superiority.

“I think it’s tied,” Diaz said smiling and then starting to laugh.

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