San Diego Padres get Mike Cameron from NY Mets for utility player

Mike Cameron will return to baseball in the same outfield where he was so frighteningly injured last summer.
Cameron's trade from New York to San Diego was finalized after the Padres were assured by doctors on Friday that the outfielder has no lingering vision or health problems from his season-ending, face-to-face collision with Mets teammate Carlos Beltran in the Petco Park outfield on Aug. 11.
The Mets got utilityman Xavier Nady from San Diego.
Cameron was playing right field when he was hurt. He will play centre for the Padres, who've been pursuing him since before Petco Park opened in 2004, featuring a huge outfield, particularly centre and right.
"Maybe it's a test from a higher power, to be able to come back and play in the same place," Cameron said. "I was thinking the other day, 'Man, I'm going to the same place.' I guess the good Lord wants me to get rid of my fears right away. I'll be all right."
Cameron and Beltran collided while pursuing a sinking liner. Cameron was hurt the worst, breaking his nose, his right orbital socket, his cheekbones and sustaining a concussion. He had surgery a day later.
Cameron joked about it Friday, saying his wife loves San Diego because she spent extra time in the city in August.
"For her to get a good experience, I had to be in the hospital for a week," he said.
Padres general manager Kevin Towers said Cameron passed thorough vision and physical exams, and the outfielder said he's as close to 100 per cent healthy as possible.
"I didn't have to rehab anything," Cameron said. "My limbs were fine. It was my face that had to heal. I had to lose a little beauty for three months. Other than that, everything's good. I'd be ready in two weeks if they needed me to play."
The Padres tried to sign Cameron as a free agent after the 2003 season, but he accepted a $19.5 million US, three-year deal from the Mets.
"I'm a big believer in fate," Towers said. "Things happen for a reason. We've been looking the last two to three years to find this type of athlete to roam the vast expanse of Petco Park."
The Padres also think Cameron will thrive offensively at Petco Park, where right-handed pull hitters fare better than left-handed pull hitters. Cameron hit at least 18 homers every season from 1999-2004, and had 12 last year before the collision.
Mets manager Willie Randolph said Cameron "is a great guy, a hell of a player. He played hard for me this year and I'm going to miss him. It's just part of our whole putting together a team."
Cameron was uncomfortable playing right, where he was moved after the Mets signed Beltran last off-season. He said he met with Mets GM Omar Minaya after the season and expressed his desire to play centre, but added that he didn't demand a trade.
"He felt much more comfortable in centre field than in right field," Minaya said. "I had to take that into account."