Life after Boston: Mike Cameron says “I’ll be back playing”

Designated for assignment by the Red Sox yesterday, Mike Cameron told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that he has no plans to retire and hopes to find another big-league job once he’s released:

I need to sort some things out, but if all goes as planned, I’ll be back playing. I haven’t played much this year. Rest assured I’ll be back. People think Father Time has got me. But it wasn’t Father Time. It was not getting much of a chance to go out there and run around and play.

Cameron is right that he didn’t get much of a chance to play regularly, totaling just 105 plate appearances through the Red Sox’s first 80 games, but he also hit just .149 with a strikeout in 24 percent of his trips to the plate and was in a 3-for-39 (.077) slump when the move was made.

Cameron was better last season, hitting .259 with a .729 OPS that would make him a useful part-time player, but betting on a 38-year-old bouncing back is always unlikely and his defense is no longer a huge asset in center field. With that said, when the Red Sox are on the hook for his entire contract and signing him for the second half costs a new team just $175,000 or so it wouldn’t be a terrible flier to take.