Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins, who will play for Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, says participating in the tournament is a special honor and a great opportunity to prove himself as an elite outfielder.
2023 marks the fifth iteration of the WBC. Japan won in 2006 and 2009, the Dominican Republic in 2013 and the United States in 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2021 event to be pushed back to 2023.
The 2023 tournament, which runs from March 8-21, will begin with four pools consisting of five teams each. Team USA will compete in Pool C against Mexico, Colombia, Canada and Great Britain in Phoenix.
Mullins, a native of Greensboro, N.C., has batted .274/.339/.460 with 46 home runs, 123 RBIs and 64 stolen bases throughout the past two seasons with the Orioles. In 2021, the 5-foot-8, 175-pound outfielder started in the All-Star Game, earned a Silver Slugger award and put together the first 30-30 season in Orioles history. Despite his standout play of late, Mullins was still shocked by the invitation to join Team USA.
“It’s a select group of guys, that’s what kind of makes it special,” Mullins said. “It feels like you’re going to the Olympics of baseball. To have such a high honor put on you, it’s a crazy feeling for sure. It just makes you think about it, but at the same time, us as competitors, it makes us excited as well.”
Mullins learned he had the chance to represent his country in the WBC during a meeting with Orioles manager Brandon Hyde and general manager Mike Elias. It was an opportunity he accepted immediately.
Mullins, 28, will join a stacked roster, especially in the outfield. Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker and Kyle Schwarber are also slated to play. Mullins is excited to play with his talented new teammates, but he also sees an opportunity for himself.
“I got an invitation to play with literally some of the best talent in the game,” Mullins said. “And in my mind, that’s just a stepping stone to trying to put my name in that bracket as well. It’s definitely something that I worked hard [at] to get to this point. Did I expect it? No, not necessarily. But it is for sure an honor on my end to be able to say that I get this opportunity to play with truly some of the best to ever play this game.”
Along with that group of elite outfielders, Mullins will be side-by-side with another familiar face on Team USA in Orioles reliever Dillon Tate. He posted a 3.05 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 73.2 innings in 2022.
Mullins says having Tate on the team will only enhance the experience.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Mullins said. “For one of my teammates to also have the honor of playing for Team USA, it’s amazing. I know he’s looking forward to it. He was definitely told a little bit later than I was, so when he came up to me saying that he was also going to be on the team, we hugged it out and we were talking about the excitement of [not] knowing what’s going to happen, just the anticipation of it.”
While Mullins and Tate are the only Orioles playing for Team USA, they are not the only Orioles in the WBC. Orioles starting pitcher Dean Kremer will pitch for Israel and outfielder Anthony Santander will play for Venezuela.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Mullins said of potentially playing against his Oriole teammates. “I’m sure we’re going to [say] a lot of trash talk to each other the whole way through. It’s just the fun of it. And to be able to play against guys that you’ve been playing with for a couple years, it’s just an all-around fun process and I’m looking forward to it.”
Mullins is not the first Orioles center fielder to play for Team USA. Back in the 2017 WBC, former Oriole Adam Jones took part in a memorable championship run with Team USA. Jones took a home run away from Manny Machado, then an Orioles teammate, when the U.S. faced the Dominican Republic during pool play in San Diego.
Having played with Jones during the 2018 season, Mullins found it ironic that he is filling his mentor’s shoes in Baltimore as well as in the WBC.
“It’s funny to be filling his shoes and potentially be playing center field at any point or just any of the outfield positions,” Mullins said. “It’s hilarious how that lines up, but it’s definitely a cool moment.”
Mullins said he has remained in good communication with Jones since he announced he will be playing for Team USA, but advice won’t just come from Jones. Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. will serve as Team USA’s hitting coach, and while Mullins isn’t old enough to have watched Griffey in his prime, the Orioles outfielder is excited for the opportunity to learn from one of the game’s greatest players.
“[Griffey’s] talent and what he’s done for the game of baseball and even outside of it carries to my generation and even guys that are four or five-plus years younger than me,” Mullins said. “Just his legacy that he’s leaving is incredible and to be able to have that one-on-one time with arguably, especially for me, one of the best hitters in the game, one of the best defensive players in the game [and] someone who I model some of my game after … just to be able to talk to him in a normal setting is going to be fun.”
In preparation for spring training in February and the WBC in March, Mullins looks to continue improving his speed, strength and flexibility. Hyde said Mullins’ defense improved tremendously during the 2022 season, potentially giving Team USA some flexibility in the outfield.
“I think he’s just getting better and better,” Hyde said during a news conference in July. “His throwing has improved. He practices his throwing every day. What’s impressive about Cedric is if you go watch him in batting practice he takes live balls off the bat every single day. So he is working to improve his defense every single day. It is very important to him.”
Beyond the WBC, Mullins is eagerly awaiting the start of the Orioles’ 2023 season. Given the young talent on the roster and the progress that took place in 2022, Mullins expects big things from the Orioles in the near future.
“I definitely believe that our expectation is to outdo what we did [in 2022],” Mullins said. “I think we opened a lot of eyes, including our own. We didn’t necessarily know where we stood [in 2022], but we did know that we had a lot of individual talent.”
“[It’s about getting] to know each other, [trusting] each other as teammates and putting our best foot forward every day out on the field,” he added. “It’s a matter of taking what we’ve learned about each other and how we move [forward] as a team and taking that into next year and really trying to get after some people.”
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox
Originally published Dec. 21, 2022