At the trade deadline, in addition to fortifying the bullpen, the Mets acquired outfielder Cedric Mullins from the Baltimore Orioles for relief prospects Raimon Gomez, Anthony Nunez, and Chandler Marsh.

The 30-year-old has spent his entire career in Baltimore until this point and was the longest tenured Oriole at the time of the trade. It was often a tough slog for Mullins in Baltimore. He went through a demotion to Double-A at one point and endured three 100-loss seasons with the Orioles. He finally broke out in 2021, putting up a 30-30 season with a 136 wRC+ and 6.0 fWAR, becoming the first player in Orioles history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season. It remains by far the best season of his career. After that, he saw the Orioles emerge from their rebuild, promoting young rising stars like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson. After years in the dark, the Orioles were AL East champions in 2023 and earned a Wild Card berth in 2024. Having seen the team through their rebuild as a clubhouse leader all while battling health issues (Mullins suffers from Crohn’s disease), Mullins became a fan favorite and face of the franchise—a player Baltimore is sad to see depart as it faces down the implications of a bitterly disappointing 2025 season.

On the field, he had made his mark as a player who can play good defense, wreak havoc on the base paths, and pose a power threat at the plate as well. At age 30, he is no longer the player he was when he put up that 30-30 season, but even with his slightly diminished skills, he brings an upgrade to the center field position the Mets sorely needed. The eye test says he’s still got it in center field. As recently as right before the trade, Mullins was making the type of highlight-reel worthy catches he’s become known for. However, depending on which advanced metrics you ask, the picture is less pretty. OAA likes Mullins, grading him out at +2 in 2025. However, DRS is far less kind. By that metric, he is well below average at -14. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. One thing on which the metrics and eye test agree: Mullins’ arm is below average and the weakest part of his game defensively. In center field, Mullins is not as good as Tyrone Taylor, but he is passable and still capable of making exceptional plays. We have already seen Mullins nearly get to a ball that bounced off the wall for a double and he will likely make those plays more consistently as he gets used to the expansive center field of Citi Field.

Offensively, the veteran lefty has been a roughly league average hitter for most of his career with moderate pop—the outcome the Mets hoped to see from Tyrone Taylor, but he has failed to provide. Power is the one facet in which Mullins’ 2021 season was truly an anomaly; he has not come all that close to 30 home runs since that season and usually sits somewhere in the 15-20 range. He has 15 home runs so far in 2025 and all of those have been to the pull side. As he has aged, that has been a notable adjustment to Mullins’ approach to the plate. His pull percentage on balls in the air this season is way up.

The past couple of seasons, Mullins’ performance offensively has been characterized by streakiness that has ultimately panned out as roughly league average offense over the course of a full season. The 2024 Orioles were dominant in the first half, but Mullins struggled at the plate as they banked those wins, putting up a 76 wRC+ prior to the All-Star Break. But just as the Orioles faltered in the second half, Mullins got raging hot, posting a 141 wRC+ the rest of the way, carrying his team as they staggered into the Wild Card round, where they were swept by the Royals (Mullins’ solo home run was the only run the Orioles scored in the two games). In 2025, he rocketed out of the gate with a 162 wRC+ in March and April before cratering into a long malaise in May and June. Right before he was traded, he was finally starting to show signs of life, but has yet to see results as a Met.

But he has already made an impact as a Met on the base paths. Thus far in Queens, Mullins recently told the New York Post that he is focusing on the parts of the game in which he excels in order to help his new team as he adjusts to being a Met. “It’s going to be defense; it’s going to be running; it’s going to be stealing bases,” Mullins said. “We’re just playing the game the right way and the way I see best fit.” He’ll fit right in with this approach on a team that is currently riding a streak in which it has successfully stolen over 30 bags without being caught. Mullins himself has an 80% success rate this season; he has stolen 16 bases while being caught only 4 times. This is one area of his game that has not diminished much. Mullins remains an excellent base runner. He has stolen more than 30 bases as recently as last season and his sprint speed grades out in the 82nd percentile, per Baseball Savant.

When he is on, Mullins is an incredibly fun and dynamic player to watch. Though at this stage of his career he may not have the upside of other players the Mets targeted at the deadline like Luis Robert, he fills a void the Mets desperately needed filled. For a team that is currently embroiled in a cold streak where they have failed to produce offensively, a well-timed Mullins hot streak could prove a strong tonic down the stretch. And even when he isn’t on, Mullins provides leadership, professionalism, and a personality that is easy to root for.