{"id":108944,"date":"2025-08-01T00:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T00:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108944\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T00:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T00:59:11","slug":"mets-look-for-more-offense-in-cf-with-trade-for-cedric-mullins-from-orioles-trade-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108944\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets look for more offense in CF with trade for Cedric Mullins from Orioles: Trade grade"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chad Jennings, Will Sammon and Tim Britton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Entering the trade deadline in need of both another left-handed bat and a center fielder, the New York Mets have accomplished just that in acquiring Cedric Mullins from the Baltimore Orioles, the Mets announced Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

In exchange, New York is sending right-handed minor-league relievers Raimon Gomez, Chandler Marsh and Anthony Nu\u00f1ez to Baltimore.<\/p>\n

The Mets had publicly identified center field as their likeliest target for offensive improvement this deadline, as Jose Siri has been out since mid-April and Tyrone Taylor hasn\u2019t approached his typical production with the bat.<\/p>\n

While the Mets have struggled more against left-handed pitching this season, a delay in DH Jesse Winker\u2019s recovery from a low back strain pushed them toward bringing in another lefty bat in the lineup. And although Mullins has traditionally been much better against righties than lefties, he\u2019s flashed reverse splits this season, with a career-best .866 OPS against fellow southpaws. Mets\u2019 president of baseball operations David Stearns, while cautioning against reading too much into small-sample data, thinks Mullins has made meaningful changes to his approach to justify that improvement.<\/p>\n

Following a scorching April, Mullins slumped to a .169 average over May and June. Like fellow Mets target Luis Robert Jr., though, he\u2019s had a nice July, including four two-hit games in the last week.<\/p>\n

Although Mullins\u2019 defensive numbers are down this season, he has long been one of the game\u2019s better center fielders, especially adept at snagging would-be home runs at the wall, as he did earlier this week. In all, Mullins is a solid everyday center fielder. He\u2019s not the All-Star he was earlier in his career, but he remains a good base runner, a league-average hitter and a decent defender. His combination of speed and left-handed power has kept him productive in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like the quality of center field he\u2019s played, especially over the last eight weeks,\u201d said Stearns, mentioning a hamstring tweak that Mullins had played through before that point.<\/p>\n

Statcast\u2019s outs above average grade Mullins as a positive defender in center field. By defensive runs saved, however, he\u2019s been the worst center fielder in baseball. Even there, though, most of that negative value accrued in April and May, and Mullins has indeed been better by that metric over the last eight weeks.<\/p>\n

A 13th-round pick in 2015, Mullins made his big league debut in 2018 when the Orioles lost 115 games, and he stuck around to become a source of stability while the Orioles incorporated younger players and became a playoff team. Mullins was an All-Star in 2021, worth 6.0 fWAR in his first full season in the big leagues. He hit 30 homers and slugged .518 that year. The past three years, though, he\u2019s been closer to a 2.0 WAR player while typically slugging a little over .400. He\u2019s still top 30 at the position, but not the standout he used to be. His offensive production has remained fairly steady over the past four seasons, but his defensive metrics have dipped, especially this year.<\/p>\n

Although Mullins has been a mainstay with the Orioles \u2014 the last holdover from a brutal era in franchise history \u2014 his time in Baltimore was nearing an end regardless. At 30 years old, Mullins is due to become a free agent for the first time this offseason.<\/p>\n

Heading back to Baltimore are three right-handed relievers. Gomez throws as hard as anyone in the minors, with a fastball that has touched 105 mph. Back this season after Tommy John surgery, Gomez began the year as a starter (where the Mets believed he could hold triple-digit velocity multiple times through an order) but shifted to the pen by May. After a promotion to High-A Brooklyn, he\u2019s been hit around to a high-six ERA.<\/p>\n

N\u00fa\u00f1ez is a developmental success story for New York. Drafted out of high school as a position player by the Padres in 2019, N\u00fa\u00f1ez was released in 2021 and decided to go back to college at the University of Tampa, where, in his junior season, he transitioned to the mound. The Mets signed him last summer and watched him blossom this season into one of their best-performing relievers in the minors on the strength of an outstanding slider. The 23-year-old has posted a 1.58 ERA and 40 percent strikeout rate between High A and Double A.<\/p>\n

Marsh went undrafted last summer out of Georgia before the Mets signed him. The 22-year-old was dominant in a brief stint in A ball this year and has held his own since a promotion to High-A Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

In four trades this month, the Mets have brought in significant value without moving a consensus top-10 prospect in the system. And they\u2019ve cleared out some room from an impending 40-man logjam this winter: Blade Tidwell was already on the 40-man, and Drew Gilbert, Gomez and N\u00fa\u00f1ez all would have been eligible in the Rule 5 draft if not added this fall.<\/p>\n

Trade grade<\/p>\n

Mets<\/strong>: B-
Orioles<\/strong>: B+<\/p>\n

Cody Stavenhagen:<\/strong> The Mets needed a center fielder, and Mullins represents a clear offensive upgrade (105 OPS+) over Taylor (60 OPS+). He walks more and hits for far more power. That alone makes this a win for the Mets.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, though, the Mets currently rank 20th in OPS against left-handed pitching. The left-handed Mullins has crushed lefties to the tune of an .866 OPS this season, but that\u2019s not at all his career norm. He has a .662 career OPS versus LHP.<\/p>\n

Mullins\u2019 center-field defense has also fallen off significantly as he\u2019s gotten older. He\u2019s been worth -13 defensive runs saved this year; Taylor is worth plus-eight. Mullins at least grades out more favorably in the outs above average metrics, where he is worth plus-two. Mets pitchers combine for the second-highest groundball rate in the league, so perhaps the defense is a tradeoff they are willing to live with? Mullins is a former All-Star and a dynamic player at his best, but he\u2019s been worth only 0.1 bWAR this season.<\/p>\n

The Orioles get three players in return for a rental hitter. Nu\u00f1ez is the best of the bunch. He has nasty stuff and is averaging 13.5 K\/9 in the minors this season. He has high upside as a reliever, and that alone makes this a fair return. We\u2019d also be remiss not to mention that Gomez has a fastball that has topped out at an absurd 104.5 mph. He\u2019s a raw but exciting talent in need of polishing.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Mitchell Layton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Chad Jennings, Will Sammon and Tim Britton Entering the trade deadline in need of both another left-handed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1276,1266,1305,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-108944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-baltimore-orioles","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york-mets","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114950803652540548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}