MLB Trade Rumors confirmed the news Sunday night: the Blue Jays have signed outfielder Daz Cameron to a minor league contract, a low-cost, low-risk add to an organization that's been managing outfield attrition all season.
MLB Trade Rumors broke the signing.
Cameron's name should ring a bell for anyone who was paying attention to the Astros-Tigers pipeline a decade ago. Houston took him 37th overall in the 2015 draft out of high school in Georgia, the son of longtime All-Star outfielder Mike Cameron, and handed him a $4 million bonus to prove the bloodline. He never played a game for the Astros. In August 2017, Houston flipped him along with Franklin Perez and Jake Rogers to Detroit in the deal that sent Justin Verlander to the Astros for their World Series run — one of the more lopsided-in-hindsight trades of that era, and Cameron was the centerpiece prospect going the other way.
The stardom never showed up. Cameron debuted with the Tigers in 2020 and has bounced through Detroit, Oakland and Milwaukee since, hitting just .200/.258/.326 across 472 career plate appearances over 5 MLB seasons. This year he'd taken his search overseas, signing with the KBO's Doosan Bears, where he actually hit well early — a .287/.360/.473 line over 314 plate appearances — before fading and getting released.
Now he's back stateside chasing a path to Buffalo, Toronto's Triple-A affiliate, starting from the bottom with an assignment to the club's complex league team. It's the kind of depth move front offices make constantly this time of year — nothing that moves the needle on the big-league roster today, but organizational insurance as the Blue Jays juggle injuries and manage bodies heading into the trade deadline stretch.
For Cameron, it's another shot at a career that's had no shortage of them. For the Jays, it's a low-cost flier on a former top prospect with a recognizable last name and a pedigree that once made him the return for a Hall of Fame-caliber pitcher. Worth watching if he climbs the ladder fast — but for now, it's a name in a transactions log.