Orioles’ Cedric Mullins, now healthy, confident he can return to 2021 All-Star form
SARASOTA, Fla. — Cedric Mullins doesn’t need more motivation.
As a small kid growing up, a 13th-round pick, a doubted prospect, the Orioles center fielder has an invisible chip on his shoulder big enough to sustain him for years to come.
But when many outside the organization talk about the stars on the Orioles, his name is oftentimes absent from that list. Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and maybe soon Jackson Holliday receive that recognition — and for good reason. Holliday is the sport’s top-ranked prospect, while Rutschman and Henderson are burgeoning superstars coming off top 10 finishes in American League Most Valuable Player voting last season.
However, Mullins also has a top-10 MVP finish on his resume in one of the best seasons from an Orioles player this century. In 2021, he smashed 30 home runs and stole 30 bases to become the first player in Orioles history to achieve the rare feat.
Mullins was good but not great in 2022, and after a torrid start, injuries hampered his 2023 campaign. After spending his offseason getting healthy and working to prevent future groin injuries, Mullins believes he’s on track to being the player he was during his dominant 2021 campaign.
“I have that confidence in myself that I can still be one of those dudes, and I’ve shown that I am one of those dudes,” Mullins said. “All I need to do is continue to show it. That’s the most important part. Knowing it is one thing, but I’ve got to do it on the field.”
Mullins, 29, knows he has that level of production still in him because he played that way for a chunk of time just last year.
In his first 53 games through late May, Mullins was slashing .263/.356/.479 — good for a team-best .835 OPS. He had eight home runs, 13 stolen bases and a team-high 39 RBIs to go along with stellar defense in center field. In 2021, Mullins slashed .291/.360/.518 for an .878 OPS, started the All-Star Game and won a Silver Slugger Award.
But a groin injury May 29 last season while running down the first-base line kept him out for about a month, and he wasn’t the same the rest of the season.
“My thought process without putting pressure on myself is to attain that level of success again, knowing that it’s in me. I was able to do that for a full season. It’s definitely there,” Mullins said. “I definitely want to be my best self, and 2021 was right there. I’m chasing that.”
Mullins returned for about three weeks before reinjuring his groin, landing him on the injured list for another month. From his return on Aug. 11 through the end of the regular season, the center fielder was clearly compromised — hitting .190 and posting a .585 OPS. He stole just five bases over the season’s final two months. In the AL Division Series against the Texas Rangers, Mullins went 0-for-12 with three strikeouts.
Manager Brandon Hyde believes Mullins’ first two months are a better representation of who he is as a player than the final four.
“When Ced is healthy, it’s game-changing for us,” Hyde said at the Orioles’ Ed Smith Stadium spring training complex Tuesday. “Just what he brings — the defense for me is Gold Glove defense in center field, and offensively the ability to get on base, steal, hit for power. The first couple months last year, when he got on base he scored.
“The kind of player Ced is is how he was those first couple months. Just staying healthy is the huge key.”
The groin issues represented the first time in Mullins’ big league career that he’s dealt with a significant injury. The last time he had an ailment of similar magnitude was as a minor leaguer in 2017 when he injured his hamstring. He also struggled while trying to play through the hamstring injury, and he spent time that offseason working on his hamstrings to avoid future issues.
Mullins used the same strategy this offseason with his groin. He took a month off to get fully healthy, got a full-body assessment to identify and fix any deficiencies in his movements, and then started doing exercises to strengthen his midsection aimed at preventing future groin injuries.
“I took the rest I needed to get the body back to full health before getting into the weight room, and I felt really good,” Mullins said.
As he was struggling at the plate late in the 2023 season, Mullins said it was hard to identify what — if anything — was wrong with his swing. Now, with the benefit of hindsight and a healthy body, he sees how the injured groin was truly affecting him.
The injury was on his plant leg side — his right leg as a left-handed hitter — and it was preventing him from properly generating the force from the ground to flow through his lower body and to his hands.
“In the moment, I’m in the zone, I’m ready to do some damage at the plate. But there were some biomechanics that weren’t in sync,” he said. “I can see it now. It was much harder to see then because I was still having some success here and there, but I couldn’t find that consistency I wanted. Being able to take a full step back after the season was over and watch those videos from a fresher lens, I was able to point some things out that next time I’ll be able to get back on track.”
Despite the injury-plagued campaign, Mullins still provided some of the most exciting moments throughout the season — from hitting for the cycle at Camden Yards in May to robbing a homer and smashing a go-ahead homer against the Seattle Mariners in August to hitting the walk-off sacrifice fly in the playoff-clinching win in September.
Perhaps no other player on the Orioles — maybe other than Henderson — has the wow factor quite like Mullins. It was in full display at spring training Tuesday, as Mullins walloped a home run off the top-left corner of the scoreboard at Ed Smith Stadium — a long ball that appeared to travel well over 400 feet.
His teammates in the dugout watched in amazement right after the loud crack of the bat. It likely won’t be the last time that’s the case this year.