By Tim Best
Arguably the most prominent and successful big leaguer to ever play summer ball here in Utica, or even in the history of the PGCBL, Cedric Mullins played for the then-Utica Brewers in 2014. That summer, Mullins was the team’s everyday center fielder and started 37 of 45 games there. He hit .287 and led the Brewers in hits (39), runs scored (34), walks (23), and stolen bases (22). His 22 stolen bases are tied for the 4th-most in a single season in franchise history and he ranks 6th all-time in franchise history in that category.
The following year, he was selected in the 13th round of the MLB Draft by the Baltimore Orioles out of Campbell University, where he hit .340 with an OPS over .900 in his lone season there. For the next three years, Mullins climbed his way up the ladder, finally getting the call to report to the big-league club in August 2018. On August 10, he became the first player to get three hits in his debut in the history of the Orioles as he went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs against the eventual world champion Red Sox. By season’s end, he was tabbed to be the team’s center fielder of the future, replacing five-time all-star Adam Jones in that position.
After difficult seasons in 2019 and 2020 with the latter being shortened to just a 60-game season due to the pandemic, Mullins cemented his place in the organization with a career year in 2021. That year, Mullins became the 43rd player in MLB history to join the prestigious 30/30 club, hitting an even 30 homers while stealing an even 30 bases. He finished 9th in AL MVP voting and was selected to the All-Star Game, where he started in center field. And he did all of this while battling Crohn’s Disease.
Five years after joining a team that finished with the worst record in baseball at 47-115, Mullins and the Orioles reached the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016 after going 101-61, which was the best record in the AL. Mullins has been Baltimore’s anchor in center field throughout his tenure there, making highlight reel play after highlight reel play with the glove.
Mullins also had the distinction of representing his country in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, appearing in six of Team USA’s seven games in the tournament, primarily as a pinch runner and defensive replacement. In pool play, he had an RBI triple that was part of a nine-run 1st inning against Canada, a 12-1 mercy rule win. In the semifinals, he crushed a solo shot in the 8th inning, the icing on the cake of a 14-2 beatdown of Cuba in Miami.