2025 Report Card: Cedric Mullins, OF

Cedric Mullins

Player Data: Age: 31 (10/1/1994) B/T: L/L

Primary Stats: .216/.299/.391, 17 HR, 59 RBI, 58 R, 23 2B, 1 3B, 22 SB, 50 BB, 120 SO, 498 PA, 133 G
Advanced Stats: 94 OPS+, 94 wRC+, 24.1 K%, 10 BB%, .253 BABIP, .291 xwOBA, 1.3 fWAR, 0.4 bWAR

2025 Salary: $8.7 million

Grade: F

2025 Review

“We like the player,” David Stearns said at a July 31 news conference after the Mets acquired Mullins for three minor leaguers from the Orioles. “We like what he brings on both sides of the ball. The athleticism. We talk a lot about ways that players can impact games that may not always show up in the box score and we think Cedric has the ability to do a lot of that.

“We think he’s going to fit in very well to how we run the bases, how we want to play defense in center field and we’re so excited to bring him on the team.”

Stearns missed on this move. Mullins’ stats above are for the full season and they were all far worse in the 42 games he played for New York. He hit .182/.284/.281/.565 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 143 plate appearances.

“I feel like he’s missing some good fastballs to hit,” Carlos Mendoza said after Mullins’ 1-for-17 start with the Mets. “You know, we know he’s a good hitter and we just got to get him back on track, especially against fastballs. But he’s a good player. But these first few games since we got him, I feel like, just a little off with the timing.”

Mullins made three spectacular catches in the week before he became a Met, robbing two home runs and laying out in the gap to take away an extra-base hit. A chance for another highlight reel play presented itself on Sept. 20 when Daylen Lile of the Nationals drove a ball over his head in the 11th inning of a tied game.

This time, though, the ball eluded Mullins, ricocheted off the wall and Lile circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run. The Nats won 5-3.

“It’s just more or less an instinctive-type play,” Mullins said. “Just do what you can. I knew what I was trying to do there, just didn’t execute it.” Said Mendoza: “It’s a tough one there. But once you realize that you have no chance on that play, maybe you give yourself a better chance to play it off the wall.”

Mullins never got going with the bat or glove and less than two months after that first news conference Stearns was answering questions at another one. It was the day after the Mets were eliminated from the playoffs and a reporter asked what he’d do differently at the trade deadline if he had another chance.

“We don’t get re-dos,” Stearns said. “We don’t get do-overs in this business. But clearly the moves we made at the trade deadline, or at least a subset of those moves, didn’t work. And in certain cases made us worse.”

2026 Preview

Mullins is a free agent and FanGraphs projects him for a .239/.307/.392 slash line in 2026 with 14 homers, 20 steals and 2.3 fWAR. The Mets need an upgrade in center field and it’s reasonable to think Mullins could put together a season in line with the projection. It’s possible his performance in New York was an aberration. But I’d prefer to let another team find that out. That two-month stretch was too much to bear.

The post 2025 Report Card: Cedric Mullins, OF appeared first on Metsmerized Online.