It’s no secret that Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins has struggled mightily in 2024.
This season, Mullins is batting .181 while posting a .544 OPS and career-high 25.7% strikeout rate through 54 games.
Mullins’ troubles seemed to culminate on June 2, though, when he accidentally struck teammate Jorge Mateo in the back of the helmet with his bat in the on-deck circle — which forced Mateo into concussion protocol — and went 0-for-4 against the Rays.
Former MLB catcher and “Foul Territory” host Erik Kratz offered his take on the best way to get Mullins back on track.
“If I’m [manager] Brandon Hyde, how do I handle Cedric Mullins? I talk to him,” Kratz said on Glenn Clark Radio June 4. “… Discussion with him will get him out of this slump, because he is a good player. There’s nothing that’s declined. His bat speed hasn’t declined. He’s not running slower and that’s why he’s hitting what he’s hitting. Like, just talk about it with him, that’s it.”
Mullins means more to the team than his stat line, though. He is one of the longest-tenured Orioles and was a beacon of hope during some dark years at Camden Yards. However, the Orioles are now World Series contenders, which may force some tough decisions to be made.
“If you want to win the World Series, like I think this team is capable of winning the World Series, then you have to have hard conversations,” Kratz said. “You send Jackson Holliday down when he does poorly. You send Connor Norby down when Mateo gets healthy. … It doesn’t make them not a big leaguer, it just means that you’re communicating with them and you’re setting a precedent for your entire team that you want to win.”
Kratz, though, believes Hyde should continue to play Mullins and left fielder Austin Hays, who had also been struggling until recently.
“In my opinion, because of how good this team is, you keep throwing them out there,” he said. “You tell them, ‘You have two weeks to turn this thing around. [If] you can’t do it in two weeks, we have seven dudes in Norfolk that are absolutely raking.'”
The starting rotation and bullpen are also areas of uncertainty for the Orioles. With John Means and Tyler Wells now out for the season, the Orioles may be scouring the trade market.
However, Kratz said the Orioles should avoid trading for another starter unless he can be a legitimate No. 3 pitcher in the playoff rotation. Instead, they should look to improve the bullpen.
“If you can’t get a Dylan Cease type of pickup for your rotation, to me, you roll with your five guys and you go all-in with picking up [Ryan] Helsley and [Michael] Kopech for your bullpen,” he said. “If somebody goes down, your bullpen is deeper in the sense that you have two guys that push everybody back.”
Although Kratz believes in Craig Kimbrel as the Orioles’ closer, the analyst believes adding depth to the bullpen would help the club withstand injuries and playoff uncertainty. And while such moves would cost some prospect capital, Kratz thinks a move needs to be made.
“If you say, ‘Ah, it’s not worth it,’ then you’re, as an Orioles fan, dipping into what the old ownership used to tell you,” he said.
For more from Kratz, listen to the full interview here:
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