Cedric Mullins Trade: Analysis & Impact

Translated by Carlos Marcano

Los St Cedric Mullins for one year and $7 million dollars.

A story in two quotes, both from April of this year:

“There are guys on this team that we would like to have here longer than they are currently scheduled. It’s not automatic. It’s case by case. There are different players, different skill levels, different representatives, different philosophies on how to handle players at different age levels. We have some very good ones and on top of that, we’ve had a very recent ownership change after kind of a protracted process during a rebuild. These guys [los dueños] They’re great, but they’re relatively new. “There’s not much more I can say about it other than it’s something we want to do if it makes sense, we’re working on it, and if it happens we’ll be here talking about it.”

That, of course, is Mike Elias. A second quote, from Mullins’ agent, Robin Copeon how the Orioles had not yet offered an extension:

“I wish they would. He wishes they would.”

They didn’t do it. Mullins began the year as a player of a particular skill level, posting a particular level of production: through the first month of the season he hit .278/.412/.515, carrying the rest of the Orioles lineup for the month like Paul Bäumer carrying Stanislaus Katczinsky. But Elias’ patience paid off for Elias, as the singular presence of Baltimore’s extensive rebuild collapsed under the weight, hitting just .198/.263/.355 the rest of the way, with a particularly gaping hole appearing in his swing after his deadline move to the Mets. Metrics are split on whether he can still cover center field, and DRC+ is skeptical about his approach at the plate, considering his walk rate a symptom of passivity.

Tampa Bay isn’t a terrible place, and $7 million isn’t a terrible salary. Perhaps the coaches there will help him find something within himself, although on the surface there is not much to optimize. He has never hit the ball particularly hard, but he already pulls it through the air as much as possible. He can’t hit breaking balls, but it’s not because he’s fooled; makes contact with them well enough, it’s just not good contact.

For everyone involved, this is an admission. For the Rays, still in transition both in terms of ownership and contention, this is another iteration of the signing. Danny Jansen: a player in a position of need, drawn from a meager crop. It’s probably cheaper than Harrison Baderthe only other pure center fielder on the market, and is also likely to be worse than Bader, but much more so in the first case than in the second. It is, in short, an acceptable application of resources, when eight months ago, under different circumstances, it was considered not to be so. It’s also an admission about Tampa’s current center fielder, the rookie Chandler Simpsonwhose aggressiveness at the plate combined poorly with hits that often failed to leave the frame, and lightning-fast leg speed that was wasted on abysmal defensive routes. It’s possible the pair share playing time at center, but if so, it’s only because Tampa feels that, entering his age-26 season, it would be too late to fix some of Simpson’s crippling idiosyncrasies.

For the Orioles, it’s a thoughtless admission. They plod along, consuming and discarding years of cost control like a locomotive consumes coal, unable to move anywhere but forward on the track. Mullins leaves. Ryan Mountcastle He stays, until he too leaves. Next year there will be guys on the team who would like more time than they are currently scheduled for, and it won’t be automatic. The process continues.

And for Mullins, it’s an admission that the 2021 season is becoming increasingly faint on the horizon as he enters his thirties. There’s a fine line between earning a bounce-back deal and simply becoming a one-year deal guy; Joey Gallo He painfully went through this transition not long ago. One day you wake up and realize: This is who you are. You still have the opportunity to grow, to adapt, to refine, but perhaps not to reinvent yourself. You wish the extension had arrived, but you also wish you had been the person to receive it. You wish everything had worked out. And he did, but in a different way than you expected. There’s still a chance to make this a bounce-back deal, in hindsight. There is still a chance to be a hero. There always is, until the end, and sometimes after.

The Dodgers re-sign the INF Miguel Rojas for one year and $5.5 million.

In some ways, the Dodgers are like what a child thinks it’s like to be an adult. You arrive into the winter season covered in glory, ready for a nice, relaxing break, like the ones your parents probably take after inching through the line to drop the kids off at school. Oh, they sure still have to do things: everyone knows that adults have to do things, they never stop talking about all the things they have to do. But you know they have nothing to complain about: they are adults. They can do whatever they want. So the Dodgers take a good long month to fool around in the shed, or read a late-life Agatha Christie novel, all those things adults pretend they like to do, and then show up at the office and simply sign Miguel Rojas to a one-year, $5.5 million deal.

Why $5.5 million? Who cares, it sounds like a good number, too specific to feel arbitrary, not specific enough to feel negotiated. He’s been making $5 million for years, so this is a nice little bonus, a thoughtful little gift that they just happened to see. Why Rojas? Because the Dodgers like Rojas, he’s going to be on the development staff anyway in 2027 and it seems weird to make him pack all his stuff, and because they’re an adult, no one can tell them what to do. Clear, Chris Taylor is gone, and Austin Barnes is gone, and everyone had to grow up a little and give up some childish things during that long, on-again, off-again summer of 2025. But the Dodgers have a guy who used to be an All-Star right fielder before he magically decided to become one of the best shortstops in the game, and they also have a backup middle infielder in Hye-seong Kim that 29 other general managers didn’t bother to take their wallets out of their pockets to check the price on. They don’t need Miguel Rojas. Except, you know, in Games 6 and 7 of the World Series, when they absolutely needed it. Most teams would say that’s the past, that they can’t afford that kind of expense, with all the bills and all the kids asking for more money every year. But it’s the Dodgers. They can have as many treats as they want.

And of course, this being the Dodgers, their vanity moves are also just plain good moves. Rojas is turning 37, but he is a good player, even at an age when others are in complete decline. He doesn’t hit the ball hard, but he doesn’t need to, preferring quantity of batted balls over quality, stealing singles while others would be striking out. His legs have worn out, but his hands and his jump haven’t, giving him reach he really shouldn’t have. He couldn’t last 150 games, so it’s nice that the Dodgers don’t need him to. The fact that they get all those leadership qualities they clearly love for free, plus a numerically justifiable contract, is what makes them the Dodgers. That, and the fact that they can drink beer and soda when the kids have to drink milk, which is totally unfair.