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The Lens · Risers & Fallers

Caminero Catches Fire While the Aces Cool

JULY 3, 2026

Who climbed and who cooled over the past week.

This is a week of small swings and one loud bat. Junior Caminero went on a five-homer tear to crash the elite tier, while a couple of front-line arms lost their footing. Everywhere else, the moves were quiet.

Turning it around

Pitchers whose form — our 0–100 score from ERA & WHIP — climbed most this week.

Junior Caminero is the story: his OPS climbed to .930 and he tacked on five home runs in a week, the biggest jump on the board. James Wood kept pace too, up to a .911 OPS with two more long balls for Washington.

Cooling on the mound

Of the strongest arms, the ones who shed the most form this week.

Paul Skenes took the hardest fall, shedding 12 points of form to sit at 68, with Joe Ryan (65) and Cam Schlittler (87, down seven) also cooling. Schlittler is still elite even after the dip; the other two just have some ground to make up.

Hot at the plate

The week's hottest hitters — top OPS over the last 7 days (min at-bats), with their game line.

Esmerlyn Valdez owned the week for Pittsburgh, going 13-for-24 with four homers and nine RBI for a 1.794 OPS. Milwaukee's Garrett Mitchell wasn't far off at 1.681, and Luis García Jr. drove in ten runs in six games for the Nationals.

Cooling off

Hitters whose bat cooled most this week — shown with their 7-day line.

Nobody cratered, but Casey Schmitt had the roughest go, a 1-for-20 week that trimmed his season OPS by 47 points. Drake Baldwin (3-for-23) and Jung Hoo Lee slipped a touch too — cold spells, not collapses.

Changing colors

Players who moved up or down a tier on our scale this week.

Two tiers changed hands, both downward. Corbin Carroll slid from elite to above-average, and Andre Pallante dropped from above-average to average. Modest steps, but worth marking.

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Stats via the MLB Stats API. Colors, form scores and power rankings are Baseball Lens's own.