December 6: The team has officially announced the signing. Right-hander Yoniel Curet was designated for assignment to make room for Mullins on the 40-man. Mullins’ one-year deal also includes a mutual option for 2027. Topkin reported the option is for $10MM, with a $500K buyout.
December 3: The Rays and outfielder Cedric Mullins are in agreement on a one-year deal, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. It’s worth $7MM, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Mullins is represented by Cope Sports Management. The Rays have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move for this Mullins deal to become official.
Mullins and the Rays will both be hoping that he can engineer a bounceback season in 2026. Now 31, he has spent the past few seasons primarily with the Orioles, serving as a well-rounded center fielder capable of providing a bit of pop, some speed and quality defense. However, 2025 was his worst season since he became a full-time major leaguer.
Back in 2021, he had a tremendous breakout year. He hit 30 home runs, stole 30 bases and ran the ball down in the outfield. He slashed .291/.360/.518 for a 136 wRC+. FanGraphs credited him with six wins above replacement.
That season now looks like an outlier. His subsequent campaigns haven’t been quite as good but he’s still been a very useful well-rounded contributor. The past four seasons have seen Mullins finish with a home run tally between 15 and 18, barely half of his 2021 total but still nothing to sneeze at. His stolen base numbers have oscillated but stayed near the 30ish range. He only swiped 19 in 2023 but he was limited to 116 games that year.
From 2022 to 2024, even with the diminished power, he slashed .244/.311/.407 for a 103 wRC+. He stole 85 bases and mostly got good review for his glovework. He tallied 7.7 fWAR, about two to three wins per season.
He got out to a hot start at the plate in 2025. At the end of April, he had six home runs, a .278/.412/.515 line and 163 wRC+. With free agency just a few months away, he seemed to have a shot at a nine-figure deal. Unfortunately, he went cold after that and never really recovered. From May 1st to the end of the season, he put up a dismal .198/.263/.355 line. A deadline deal to the Mets didn’t help get him back on track.
Ultimately, his full 2025 line of .216/.299/.391 isn’t too bad. The 94 wRC+ indicates he was only 6% below league average, but it’s obviously not ideal for a free agent to hit the open market riding a five-month slump.
His glovework is also arguably less stable now, perhaps not shocking for a guy who is now 31 years old. Outs Above Average still considers him an above average fielder but by a smaller margin now. He was credited with at least 10 OAA in both 2021 and 2022 but was below five in each of the two most recent seasons. Defensive Runs Saved ranked him as a strong defender a few years ago but tagged him with a -4 grade in 2024 and -14 in 2025, dropping him to -11 DRS for his career.
The combination of trends left Mullins with diminished earning power but he’s a sensible flier for the Rays to take. They used a mishmash of different guys in their outfield group in 2025. Each of Chandler Simpson, Jake Mangum, Josh Lowe, Christopher Morel and Kameron Misner took between 216 and 429 plate appearances as an outfielder for Tampa this year, with others appearing for smaller samples as well. None of those five guys had even league average offense this year. Misner and Morel were designated for assignment at the end of the season. Misner was traded to the Royals. Morel was non-tendered and is now a free agent. The Rays recently brought in another outfielder by signing Jake Fraley.
Last month, Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander admitted that upgrading the outfield would be a target for this offseason. However, spending big has never really been the club’s style. That’s presumably extra true after a season in which they had to move to a minor league park, which led to extra expenses and then smaller crowds. The Rays decided to pass on picking up an $11MM club option for Pete Fairbanks, despite a fairly affordable $10MM price difference between that option and the $1MM buyout.
The Rays wouldn’t be serious contenders for signing someone like Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger. Even if they were willing to splurge on a mid-market free agent, this year doesn’t really have any outfielders who fit the description. Trent Grisham would have been in there but he accepted a qualifying offer from the Yankees. That left the Rays with the trade market and then free agents like Mullins, Harrison Bader, Mike Yastrzemski and others.
RosterResource currently estimates the Rays for a $77MM payroll in 2026, before factoring in Mullins. They finished 2025 at $88MM. It’s unknown how much they plan to spend next year but they will be pretty close to last year’s outlay once Mullins is officially on the books.
Presumably, Mullins will be penciled in as the everyday center fielder as the Rays hope he finds a way to return to form. Their remaining outfielders can battle over the playing time in the corners, with Mullins perhaps acting as a veteran mentor for them.
Photos courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images
Wish him luck. It would be nice to see him bounce back.
He started strong in 2025, but it seemed like he could barely get a hit after April.
His bat was garbage with the Mets. Hard to watch.
Extremely. Automatic out
Guy only had 1 good season. A bounce back is a 710 720 ops. Older now so realistically a 680 690 season is amazing for him.
A bounce back to his 2024 statistics is realistic. His 2024 production would be ok for Rays next year given the 2026 salary.
In 2024 he had a .710 OPS, a 107 OPS+, stole 32 bases and played good defense, although not as good as in his earlier seasons. That translated to 2.6 bWAR. At 31, he’s slowing down some, hurting the defense, the SBs and probably costing a few legged out singles. Even if he could get back to 2.6 WAR, that’s something the Mets and Yankees can afford to pay $7 million for, but the Rays need more than 2+ WAR for $7 million (third highest salary on next year’s team, assuming they don’t trade Brandon Lowe). The Orioles, who know Mullins best (he was a fan favorite) apparently preferred trading Grayson Rodriguez and paying almost $14 million for Taylor Ward, even though they need a CF and Ward only plays a corner, to bringing back Mullins at half that price. This does not strike me as a typical Rays signing.
Mullins has had one great season, 1 really good season, and 2 good seasons. I think the great season was an outlier. I do expect a bit of a bounce back with the Rays and a return to the AL East.
Why realistic?
Soto is 700 million and doesn’t play great in right field. Geez
Incredible how much his stock has dropped over the past 2 years, but it’s all about performance. As Bill Parcells once said, “I am my record.”
solaris602: Parcells actually said “You are what your record says you are.”
He was talking about teams, but it applies equally to individual players.
It actually doesn’t apply as well to individuals. A record is a basic stat and players should be judged more on their underlying stats.
Depends on the info, doesn’t it? The analytics gang use their numbers as the be all and end all in this era, but many times they don’t begin to tell the tale. Statistics and analytics have their places, of course, but so does the eye test. That is, seeing a player as a solid coach who can help make adjustments that elevate a player, incrementally or even higher. I dunno. As fans, how many stats do we need to tell us if a player “has it” or not?
Stowers is a bit of a long shot doncha think?
You missed the joke
Hey Rogers was surprisingly good
Bounce back to what? 2022? That’s a while ago.
Nice hat.
They like to use that hat photo of him and I love that.
Looks like he’s auditioning to go to Pittsburgh with that hat.
Hm, savvy prove it deal on the side of the Rays and a solid landing spot for Cedric, cause he might find a trade to a competitive team very easily if he plays to potential. Curious to see how this plays out.
Dang it, a centerfielder off the board in a weak class. Wanted the angels to get him, if the rays got him it probably wasn’t that expensive.
Buxton’s reportedly willing to move.
I love the idea of Buxton in Baltimore. I dunno if it’ll happen, but it makes me smile imagining such a thing.
He has a no trade clause and professed he’s staying where he is at
@paosfan. Foul territory said Buxton is open to a trade today. Minnesota is scaling back so it makes sense. Probably not to the angels he would probably waive it for a contender.
Problem is between Trout and Buxton there are only so many DH AB’s to give
Buxton is a fantastic CF defender. Why would he DH?
He be fragile!!!
He was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning he breaks his arms, every night he breaks his legs.
Hes awful; your better off with anyone but him
Awful? Perhaps at staying healthy but he was terrific last year.
I think he means Mullins, not Buxton
Both are capable cf at minimum if not good.
@AI. Angels need a centerfielder ok or minimum works. They might just work out a trade for a younger one that hasn’t panned out. Mullins at 7 was worth a shot. Buxton would probably accept a trade to a new york team.
If healthy they should be better than just ok. At some point they were gold glove conversion. They aren’t that old yet to be negative defenders.
It’s easy to be a negative defender with Pete C-A, Rafaela, Jacob Young, Jackson Merrill, Jackson Chourio and Julio Roriguez raising the bar (and the average) defensively. At his age, Buxton still rates out pretty well (-5 DRS). Mullins is below average (-14).
@bronxlou. Buxton has a contract, and will cost prospects Mullins is just salary, plus I believe everyone else will be a overpay for center. Angels aren’t going to spend big for bellinger, and dont have prospects to make it happen for a Buxton type. Fine they can but they need to patch up the holes with duct tape and trade for anyone they can to help with depth.
But is it an A+ addition, Dream?
Rexhudler86: Come on, the Angels can’t get everybody.
@alfred. That’s the other LA team. I realize that Buxton would cost to much, and a pipe dream.
Good spot to land for him to re establish higher value for himself.
He does well defensively and has some electric robberies! He used to switch hit but stopped a few years ago to focus on the left side. Maybe another different approach is needed for him again – use the entire field more, don’t sell out for power, be more of a top of the order table setter and use that speed before it starts escaping him.
Looking forward to a nice bounce back campaign for Ceddy. Always a fan favorite in charm city!
Good for Cedric!!!
He doesn’t feel like a Rays player to me. Not sure why. I think he’ll do pretty good there and try to get back to his regular self. He’s a pretty fun player to watch
I think, if there’s a Rays type of player, its guys who are flawed in some way, but still provide better value than you’d think. Like Yandy Diaz, who doesn’t hit for power like a typical 1B (until recently) but is an OBP master.
Mullins fits that mold IMO. He does everything you want from a centerfielder… except hit for average.
He’s cheap so is perfect ideal Rays player.
Between rhandome and AI GM you got it. Imperfect player, cheaper player.
I’ll add the Rays also like the high up-side if said flaw is fixed/mitigated.
Rays are a good team to get a bounce back year, hopefully it works.
Among Stearns’s trade deadline acquisitions, only Helsley turned out worse. Wasn’t good in the field and was an automatic out. Rays must be desperate.
Pretty small sample size.
2025: 500 PAs and an obp of .299. 2024 about the same. How much of a sample do you require before concluding he’s no longer a good player?
I love Ced but hes a small guy and constantly deals with his Chrons and nagging injuries. When hes healthy he is fun to watch. Really hope for him to bounce back
Don’t know if he has much left in the tank at this point, but he is a Jays Killer. I’ll go ahead and pencil him in for 5 homers and at least one home run saving catch against us this season.
He’s 31. At worst, he’s a fourth outfielder.
Rays have a lot of fourth OFs. And they’re not paying any of the others $7 million. In fact, they’re not paying any other OF more than $1 million.
Jake Fraley challenges your statement.
Tough to see any downside here for the player or the team. A win-win as it were…….
He should fit the way the Rays use their roster. Good match.
1/9.5?
That sounds fa way too high to me. I was thinking like 5m or less.
Let’s split the difference
I’m gonna hold at my price. Closest to the actual price wins
He got 7m, so right about in the middle as you suggested.
And with price is right rules Yankees went over so he’s out
Bob, always the bridesmaid… story of my life!
AI GM- did we just become best friends?
Kind of thought the Angels would land Mullins. I could see them getting either J.J. Bleday or Jose Siri, maybe Chas McCormick. Doubt Arte springs for Bellinger.
Chandler Simpson didn’t look bad for the Rays last season but i could see him sliding over to LF
After he bounces back hitting in either of the Rays favorable stadiums the Angels will give him his final contract.
He was never getting a nine-figure deal.
I have my doubts that Pham Kepler Conforto will either.
No, but a Trade Rumors site doesn’t have a ton to talk about in the early goings of a season, so it was a fun exercise to look at his projected value if he someone maintained that ridiculously hot start.
The Ray’s operating more like a used tire shop with all of these retreads.
Guess the Astros lost some business
“He got out to a hot start at the plate in 2025. At the end of April, he had six home runs, a .278/.412/.515 line and 163 wRC+. With free agency just a few months away, he seemed to have a shot at a nine-figure deal”
Ummm….yeah, no he didn’t. Ever. Nine figures was NEVER happening for Mullins.
Mullins was my favorite Oriole for a couple of years but he was incomplete outside of 2021.
All the speed in the world to be a leadoff guy and steal 30+ bases. But he never took walks so he hit under .240 and barely .300 OBP and he couldn’t make use of it. (the one low SB year had an injury)
Made numerous highlight-reel plays. But his defensive range has sagged the past 3 years as the article mentioned, to where he probably should be a corner OF. But he never had a great arm and only 2 assists each of the past 2 years. Teams also want more than 15-18 HR from a corner OF. He also missed time each of the past 3 years.
After 2021, I was hoping he’d be Adam Jones plus speed in CF through the rest of the decade for the Orioles. But he’s been basically league average or just above with great speed and poor plate discipline, without the OBP for a leadoff and without the power for mid lineup. I understood after a long, ice-cold stretch in 2024 why he hadn’t been extended.
Hopefully he got some incentives that if he does bounce back toward 2021 quality he picks up $ accordingly but he’ll likely be deployed mix-and-match/platoon for the Rays. Probably best since his skills seem to be here and there.
9 figures though? That was a stretch unless he reproduced 2021 a couple of times.
I’m not sure what the metrics people are looking at when they grade Mullins so harshly on defense. Must be a mediocre arm because his ability to make leaping and diving catches is jaw dropping. Rays fans will love the glove. We’ll see about the bat, but he’s still good for 20+ SB and mid-teens in HRs
Must be same ones that made them think he was getting 9 figures.
His range is great but his arm is terrible. He’ll run a ton of balls down for sure.
Rays are stacked with defensive wizards. Offense is the problem they need to fix, but I can’t say I’m surprised they haven’t addresses it at all.
I like Mullina still. He is not a strikeout pig and can field. If he picks up his average he will be a bit of a force.
Good signing for the Rays. I can’t recall, are they going back to the Trop or playing more on Steinbrenner’s little league park?
I want Ced to bounce back and he still has value in the field so if he can get at least to his career average OPS, he could rebuild has value.
I just hate to have to face him in the AL East.
A
Defensive data looks good. Go swing for Tampa. 1 year 7m low risk achievable value.
That’s the 6th OF on the Rays roster. Fantastic roster building. That means at least two guys now will be traded or stiffed in the minors. Gonna be another tough year
Did you look at who the six OFs were? At least 2 belong on the minors. Most teams have more than 4 OFs on the 40. Its called depth.
@stymee Who belongs in the minors? Simpson and Mangum? Mangum is already 28 and pushing Simpson to the minors will only flatten his development (what you saw is what you’ll likely get with him).
That’s not depth. That’s called blocking players who have already shown enough to be starters (and the Rays are guilty of it all the time). Forgive me if I don’t think Mullins and Fraley are a considerable improvement over Mangum and Simpson. Let’s also just ignore that there’s no depth whatsoever for the INF as they trot Walls and Williams (who by your comment, SHOULD be in the minors) as starters at SS and the oft-injured BLowe and UTIL man Palacios as starters at 2nd. This team has zero depth on the team at all despite all the recent signings.
So yeah, if they care about depth let’s see them not trade any of those OFs(unlikely) and let’s see them add at SS/2B (also unlikely).
@Rex If they trade Mullins mid-season, that’s even more of a wash for this season, so my comment still stands. I am knocking it because that’s valuable playing time to audition whether Mangum or Simpson or JLowe are part of the future. If they’ve already made their decision then they should be trading those guys away, not taking away their playing time or stashing them in the minors.
But this group has been making questionable decisions for 3 straight years so I guess it is on par with their ‘Rays-way’
@rays. He will be traded at the deadline thats the rays way, and im not knocking it.
That’s the Pirates way. The Rays make trades, but they aren’t the team signing rentals for the purpose of flipping them at the trade deadline. They actually try to win, and if a guy is contributing to that on a one year contract, they keep him.
At 7m he’s starting
Another poor decision by Tampa. Really doing poorly without Bendix.
Mrs Bendix?
nice first move by Rays Senior Advisor Brandon Hyde
Gotta be honest, $7M feels like an overpay. Considering it was the Rays who signed him I was thinking $3-5M tops.
Not for centerfield. It’s a premium position without many options at the moment.
Yeah I get it’s a premium position, but with Tampa’s usual budget that’s a lot. And he’s just not good anymore. He’s ok defensively; he’s a Trainwreck on offense.
Nice pickup, should be an entertaining season. And Cedric can also help with kids birthday parties, weddings, graduations and such
We have 2 LH bats for RF..hmmn. JLowe might be packing up soon. He;s a sweet guy (a lot nicer than his brother), but has been a disappointment on the field and in the batters box. Perhaps a change of scenery will take care of that. It did his brother some good….for a while. Do i hear Minnesota on the horizon? Miami?
Twins are loaded with LH outfield bats in the majors and upper minors. No chance they trade for more unless they are named Max Clark or Konnor Griffin (won’t happen). They already have Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez as top 75 prospects in AAA.
Honestly, though, I don’t see anyone giving up much more than a flier at a different position for Josh Lowe.
He couldn’t hit a lick for the Mets, but even his defense was pretty bad. He took awful routes to balls and couldn’t get to a lot of balls you’d think his speed would make him able to get to.
Overpay
Love a middle of the night transaction!
The Rays didn’t spend much time mullin’ that over. 🤣
Let’s be honest please. Mullins was a complete dead fish out of water after being traded from the only organization he ever knew…and he pouted the whole time. It was like he never played the game before, he never looked comfortable at the plate, had horrible at bats, made maybe 2 better than average plays in the outfield but had more misplays, and then he had that horrible base running blunder down the stretch where he just stopped running between bases. Thankfully Stearns first positive move since March was letting Mullins go, remains to be seen if he can overcome the rest of the mess he made for himself.
Mullins seemed to flame out early. He’s barely 31 and seems like he’s been washed up since he was 27.
“Ultimately, his full 2025 line of .216/.299/.391 isn’t too bad. The 94 wRC+ indicates he was only 6% below league average, but it’s obviously not ideal for a free agent to hit the open market riding a five-month slump””.
This just goes to show how far ML players and more importantly our expectations of success have fallen when we robustly speak about a guy who hits .216 being “not so bad” as compared to being “6% below league average”……
Not a Mets fan but given their outfield issues, if they thought Mullins had anything to contribute they would have re-signed him….instead, we’re bombarded with analytics and statistics trying to create value where there isn’t too much to talk about……
Only one bad year in his last 5 years, and only 31. I’d expect a bounce-back to his 23-24 numbers.
The Rays have to spend a bit more if they want to get back to the playoffs. I would say this is a good start.
They don’t have the same team anymore. I would maybe add another player to strengthen the team.
Why do I have a bad feeling about this?😅
Well it’s not 18 mill down the drain with Burrell…. let’s hope
True.. fingers crossed 😅
kind of typical deal for the Rays.. but he was another deal that was a big disappointment for the Mets.
I didn’t expect Curet to be the one to be DFA’ed, wow
Yeah did he go down with a surgery to be out for all of next season? Otherwise, definitely a very surprising choice
He’s not hurt
The Rays are going to be an afterthought in A.L.East in ‘26
“He seemed to have a shot at a nine-figure deal” Really? Even if he had put up his 2021 numbers again in 2025, I have a hard time believing anybody would have given him that much money.
I rarely disagree with the MLB trade rumors writers to this degree, but I just can’t wrap my head around how they came to that conclusion.