BRIDGEWATER — Imagine that you’re a baseball player. You get drafted by a big-league franchise. You spend four years working hard in the minors before getting called up to the majors, but it only lasts for five games. You get sent back to Triple-A the following spring. Four months later you get dumped to another organization for cash, and three months after that you need labrum surgery.

That would be enough adversity to make many players hang up their uniform and cleats. But not Cam Eden.

“That’s the biggest challenge of it all,” Eden, a former Blue Jays outfielder, said recently in his new journey with the Double-A Somerset Patriots. “I think all these guys can say baseball is really hard mentally. Getting down on yourself is definitely something that we all fight.”

The 27-year-old California native is staying resilient in his fresh start with the Yankees, who acquired him last August and assigned him to finish out the season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Eden underwent shoulder surgery in late November, which kept him out of game action this season until May 13. But it was a necessary operation for his non-throwing arm as his shoulder had been periodically dislocating since his days at Yuba City High School.

Eden knew as recently as 2022 upon getting an MRI that his labrum was torn, but he and the Blue Jays opted for maintenance over surgery at the time.

“It was something I always had to stay on top of,” said Eden, who rehabbed in Tampa before joining Somerset on June 2. “It wasn’t lingering pain at all. It was only a chance it could pop out of place or not. It definitely adds a little bit of, in the swing, a little bit of fear. So having it all surgically repaired and everything is huge for me.”

A sixth-round draft pick of the Blue Jays out of California Berkley in 2019, Eden has always been most known for his speed. He stole 53 bases in 57 attempts with Triple-A Buffalo in 2023 before debuting in the majors in September that year. He collected his first major league hit against the Rays on Oct. 1.

“It is a pretty surreal experience, and it’s a special life up there for sure, something that no one on this earth will really be able to experience other than that many people,” Eden said. “It is a very, very unique life and very rewarding life, very fun life. So that is definitely a little bit of a driving factor to keep me in the game and keep going.”

Eden has struggled to be consistent with his bat — he’s a lifetime .236 hitter in the minors with 28 home runs in 465 games — so finding a rhythm in Somerset is key in order to get another chance to utilize his speed in the majors, whether it’s with the Yankees or another team.

“I still think the base running value and base stealing value is huge for me,” Eden said. “I think right now that would probably be the biggest thing that’ll get me moving up, but I’m always trying to improve as a player as a whole. The hitting side, which I really struggled with last year, is definitely a big focus for me right now. And plus, you have to hit to able to get on base. You can’t steal first base, unfortunately. So the hitting piece is gonna be big for me to even do what I can do on the base paths.”

While he considers himself a natural center fielder, Eden is focusing on playing the corner spots right now to more himself more versatile, and thus, more valuable.

He considers it a fun and refreshing process while playing in his second organization, especially since the preparation side of the game — including the base stealing and defensive instruction — has stood out during his brief time with the Yankees.

That, too, helps him lean into his competitive nature and desire to never quit on challenges in life. He knows that good results won’t come if he gets down on himself.

“It’s definitely a battle always to have that belief in yourself even where the results aren’t there, but I’m pretty resilient, a pretty determined person,” Eden said. “I’m so grateful to be in this game after seven years. Not many people have been able to play for this long, so no matter where I’m at, no matter what success I’m at or having, I’m grateful to still be playing the game.”