Baltimore Orioles acquire outfielder from A's

Jason Burke | Nov 1, 2024

Sep 25, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics center fielder Daz Cameron (28) catches the ball against the Texas Rangers during the first inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

The A's and Baltimore Orioles kicked off the beginning of the offseason with a minor trade on Thursday, with the Athletics sending Daz Cameron to the O's in exchange for cash considerations.

Cameron began the season at Triple-A Las Vegas and was hitting .307 with six home runs and a 1.001 OPS before he was selected to the Major League roster on May 23. He spent the remainder of the season with the A’s, starting in 45 of the team’s 110 remaining games, hitting .200 with five home runs, five steals, and a .587 OPS in 186 plate appearances.

The A's were only going to have a few open roster spots heading into the offseason, with a number of Rule 5 eligible players needing protection from the draft, so this minor deal with the Orioles clears up a spot for the A's in the outfield mix.

The way things were likely to shake out, Cameron wasn't going to be seeing much time with the big-league team anyway, given that JJ Bleday and Lawrence Butler are cemented into their spots in center and right field, and the A's currently having options such as Brent Rooker, Miguel Andujar and Seth Brown also available to them in left, not to mention prospect Colby Thomas, who had a terrific season in the minors and was named the A's hitting prospect of the year by MLB Pipeline.

Cameron has spent at least parts of four of the last five seasons in the big leagues, with the lone exception being in 2023 when he was in the minors all year as a member of the Baltimore system. He played in 110 games in Triple-A Norfolk, batting .268 with a .346, 16 homers and a .798 OPS.

The A's could still potentially use an upgrade in left field, if they can coax one into playing their home games at a minor-league facility, but if they stick with the on-hand options of Andujar, Brown, the occasional Rooker, and Thomas, then they should be in pretty good shape as well. At this point in the offseason, the name of the game for the A's is to clear roster spaces, and Cameron was one of the players they decided to part ways with.

The A's roster now sits at 36 players, which is a good place to be considering the number of ranked prospects the team will likely need to protect in the Rule 5 Draft.