John Romano: The Rays need Cedric Mullins to forget his past glory and be himself

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 3, 2026

Published in Baseball

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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — He’s not a star, but you already knew that.

His one-year, free-agent deal is for $7 million, which doesn’t seem like much compared to George Springer (6 years, $150 million) or Kyle Schwarber (5 years, $150 million) or Christian Yelich (9 years, $215 million) or Teoscar Hernandez (3 years, $66 million) or even Randy Arozarena (1 year, $15.65 million).

And yet, Cedric Mullins has a higher WAR during the past five seasons than any of those other outfielders.

He plays a premium defensive position, has good speed and has been an above-average hitter.

So why hasn’t the baseball world showered Mullins with an abundance of praise?

I would assume the issue is expectations.

Back in 2021, Mullins was arguably one of the top 10 position players in the game. He was a 30/30 hitter with a .291 batting average and Baseball Savant said he covered nearly as much ground in center field as Kevin Kiermaier. At 26 years old, it looked like fame was just around the bend.

The problem is, Mullins has not come close to duplicating that breakthrough season in Baltimore. He’s been solid. He’s been dependable. He’s provided good value for the money he was paid. But his chance at stardom has come and gone.

“That’s a pretty high bar, that season he had in ’21,” Rays baseball operations president Erik Neander said. “What we’ve said to Cedric is, you look at ’23, ’24 and ’25 in Baltimore … and that version of Cedric Mullins is more than enough for us. Take some of the pressure off. Stop trying (to duplicate). Don’t worry about being the ’21 version. We will happily take that ’23. ’24, ’25 Baltimore version that hits 15 (home runs), is dependable in center field, plays it as clean as anybody.

“That kind of presence in the lineup, that kind of teammate, that’s more than enough for us to make this thing go.”

It’s easy to tell Mullins that. It’s much harder to convince him.

When you’ve hit 30 homers, when you’ve started an All-Star Game, when you’ve been the toast of a town, it’s difficult to settle for anything less. Especially when there are moments when the old magic returns.

Last season, Mullins hit six homers in Baltimore’s first 24 games and had an OPS of 1.023. He proceeded to hit .176 with a .543 OPS over the next two-plus months.

The problem, he says, is too many adjustments. Pitchers adjusted to him after his monster 2021 season, and Mullins has been constantly tweaking his own approach at the plate, which means he has gotten away from what made him a budding star.

“I definitely know that (2021) player is in me,” Mullins said. “I’m a few years removed from that season, and I’ve still had some strong years following. It’s just certain things I feel like I may have changed about myself that I probably shouldn’t have while adjusting to (pitchers). That’s kind of what I’ve leaned on this offseason, just going back to what I felt like was working then. Just certain things with the swing. Not necessarily shooting for more power, but just working on my posture at the plate.”

The Rays were fairly aggressive when it came to pursuing Mullins, getting him signed in early December when most free agents were still on the board. The appeal was obvious. The last time Tampa Bay had a full-time centerfielder — with more than 400 at-bats in a season — was Kiermaier in 2019.

And, if you scrunch your eyes, he is a bit like Kiermaier in his later years in Tampa Bay.

Oh, sure, the defense isn’t nearly as dynamic, but Mullins has more pop in his bat and steals more bases. Until he endured those dreadful few months with the Mets after being traded by the Orioles last summer, you could count on Mullins posting a WAR of 2.5 or higher every season.

Even if Mullins does get back to the type of solid numbers he had in 2021-24, this will probably be a one-year arrangement. There is a mutual $10 million option for 2027, but with prospect Jacob Melton knocking on the door it would make sense if the Rays traded Mullins in July or let him walk in the offseason.

Either way, at age 31, Mullins is motivated to show the rest of the league that he’s still capable of playing every day.

“It’s a situation where I’m trying to resurrect the career,” Mullins said. “It wasn’t my best year last year, even though I had some good ups. But the downs came with it on the heavier side. So, this was an opportunity to come in and play every day and show the player I can be.”

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