There is great danger in falling into hyperbole in moments like this.
The truth is that Cedric Mullins finished his Orioles career with 15.4 WAR, according to Baseball Reference, good for just 46th all-time among Orioles* position players.
(*Infuriatingly, record keeping also includes St. Louis Browns history. That should change. That should have changed long ago. That should never be the case. No city should ever want another city’s sporting history. Take note, Indianapolis.)
Your kids, and quite specifically my kids, aren’t concerned about where Mullins ranks among the Orioles’ career WAR leaders. If we’re being honest, those emotions aren’t unique to our kids. We’re all feeling something about the center fielder’s departure, even if we knew it was coming.
This is a deeper conversation than just “did the Orioles do the right thing in trading Cedric Mullins?” We know their reality. They aren’t winning anything this year. They clearly didn’t intend to give Mullins a contract extension. Through that very narrow prism, the Orioles had to get anything they could in return for an expiring asset.
My kids are 10 and 8 years old, respectively. They were bummed that Anthony Santander departed after last year, but this was the first real heartbreak they’ve experienced about a player. Just the day before, they were watching and rooting for one of their favorite Orioles (and admittedly dad’s singular favorite at the moment) as he made perhaps the greatest play of a career with a never-ending list of great plays.
Mullins brought us joy. He was never quite as great as his predecessor (Adam Jones, a top-10 all-time Oriole) but for all of his streakiness at the plate, he was just a joy to watch play baseball. The “Cedric the Entertainer” moniker was just so fitting because nearly all of our favorite moments from the Mike Elias era of Orioles baseball were delivered by him.
The four-minute supercut Avi Miller put together last week was frontloaded with some of the most memorable (like the Byron Buxton robbery in Minnesota, which was definitely No. 1 on my list … until his thievery of Ali Sanchez in his farewell).
Undoubtedly, some of Mullins’ peaks cloud our judgment. We remember the spectacular and it helps us forget about some of the weeks and months when he wasn’t particularly productive. But to an extent, that’s baseball. There’s no debate about whether Mullins was a good baseball player as an Oriole — only a debate about how good.
This is how sports work. Sometimes your favorite players end up playing for another team. Baseball is weird because there isn’t a salary cap — certainly as long as Bryce Harper has something to say about it — but you can still recognize that teams have to assess a player’s value and how they fit into the picture as they attempt to win. Players move on. It stings. Our kids are emotional about it, but it’s not going to be the last time. We get over it eventually. Well, some of you have still never gotten over Mike Mussina but other than that, we get over it eventually.
This one stings for other reasons, though. It’s not just that one of our favorite players is departing. It’s that one of our favorite players is departing, and we’re not really sure if it actually makes any sense. When the Orioles and Jones divorced after 2018, we knew the team was headed into a full-on rebuild. We could see why Jones didn’t make sense as part of that picture. It hurt, badly. But it made sense.
The Orioles moved on from Mullins for … we’re still not exactly sure what in center field. In the immediate future, Dylan Carlson. Perhaps if Colton Cowser finally gets going offensively he’ll get a crack at becoming the guy. Eventually, the answer might be Enrique Bradfield Jr. But none are surefire answers despite the fact that ostensibly, the Orioles are going to try to win next year. Maybe they intend to sign or trade for a legitimate upgrade in center field in the offseason!
But we don’t know that. And we’re uncertain about just how far they’re willing to go in pursuit of getting back into World Series contention next year. Not knowing exactly what the market is for Mullins complicates this, too. If he’s looking for superstar money, we can understand the team’s reluctance to pay that. But we don’t know that, either. It feels like given their uncertainty in center field, they could probably use Mullins’ stability in the short term. And maybe a reunion could still be possible this offseason? It feels unlikely, but perhaps it could work out.
Whatever happens, I’m grateful to have spent the last few years watching Cedric Mullins play baseball. My favorite Oriole as a kid was Mike Devereaux. Jones and Mullins have been my favorite Orioles as an adult. I’m grateful that he helped lay the foundation for my kids falling in love with the Orioles and falling in love with the game.
I eternally wish the best for him. And I hope that ultimately, the Orioles prove to have made the right decision.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox