Announcing the Player of the Year
Baltimore finds a hero in the 13th round
Welcome to Warning Track Power, a weekly newsletter of baseball stories and analysis grounded in front office and scouting experiences and the personalities encountered along the way.
Regular readers of this space know that usually I’ll work my way in with an anecdote or some kind of personal connection to the subject matter. That’s not the case today.
I have no history with the inaugural Warning Track Power Player of the Year.
He’s not Shohei Ohtani, the presumptive AL MVP and unquestionably the most talented player in baseball. This player didn’t enter MLB with that kind of fanfare or pedigree.
In fact, most people who work under the conditions that this player has endured would lodge formal complaints with HR departments over hostile and abusive workplace environments. Imagine going to work every day for a company that was routinely overmatched by the competition by design — and not proactively seeking resources to improve their standing.
Now imagine thriving in that setting.
The 2021 WTP Player of the Year was selected in the 13th round — 403rd overall — in the 2015 Draft by the Baltimore Orioles. Last week, he became the first O’s player ever to join the 30-30 club when his fly ball off Rangers pitcher Spencer Howard cleared the center field fence.
On a team that receives most of its attention for the wrong reasons (107 losses and counting), Cedric Mullins represents so much of what’s great about baseball.
For the area scout who first laid eyes on Mullins for the Orioles, there was an immediate sense of something special. “The kid had sparks coming off his body,” says Rich Morales, who worked a few different territories for the O’s over a span of about 15 years.
(This past season, he joined the Mets when an opportunity opened up in Northern California. The new area allows Morales to see his father, former big leaguer Rich Morales, on a daily basis.)
Morales still remembers the date he first saw the 2021 American League All-Star. It was May 6, 2014 — the day before another of his draft picks, Caleb Joseph, made his big league debut.
Morales woke up at his home in Blacksburg, Virginia, looking for a game to scout. He found a junior college tilt between Louisburg College and Spartanburg Methodist College. The ballpark — in the former minor league stadium in Kinston, North Carolina — was more than five hours away. He checked the clock and did the math.
“I got in my car and drove as fast as I could,” he says. Well, Morales must have at least obeyed a stop sign or two along the way because he missed first pitch.
No scout wants to walk into a game late, and no scout will allow himself to be seen walking into a game late. So, in the middle of the first, Morales walked down the third base line and settled in just in time to see an athletic-looking left-handed hitter.
The batter got out in front of a breaking ball and still scorched it off the base of the outfield wall. Morales’ interest was piqued. His curiosity grew after the inning ended and the player trotted out to center field.
“After two innings,” he admits, “I started getting that tingly feeling.”
Morales called his national crosschecker, Matt Haas, and told him there was a big league center fielder in Kinston, North Carolina.
With the draft about one month away, Haas showed up to meet Morales — and observe Mullins — the next day.
Morales speaks of his initial encounters with Mullins in a way reminiscent of older scouting tales. He recalls his first handshake with the player; the strong, thick hands and fixed eyes that transform mortal men into mythological legends as stories of their triumphs are retold and passed down.
“You kind of just know,” Morales says.
Morales has made a career out of knowing, trusting his instincts, well honed from a lifetime around the game. In 2018, his scouting efforts were recognized by the Orioles. He received the Jim Russo Scout of the Year Award, having signed three players — Mullins, Austin Wynns, and Ryan Meisinger — who all made their Major League debuts that year.
The path to drafting Mullins wasn’t that simple, though.
Committed to Campbell University for the 2015 season, Mullins’ signing price increased before the draft. Morales wished him well. He had priced himself out of the Orioles’ comfort zone. (The O’s weren’t alone in their feelings, as Mullins went undrafted.)
One year later, Morales didn’t think there was any chance that his team would select the Georgia native because his name never came up in the meetings leading up to the Draft.
In the 11th round that year, Baltimore picked Meisinger. Shortly thereafter, Morales’ phone rang. It was Haas. He wanted to know if Mullins would sign for $100,000.
In the 13th round of the 2015 Draft, the Orioles selected Cedric Mullins.
A 30-homer, 30-stolen base season requires a coveted combination of power and speed, usually the kind that comes off the draft board on day one. Of the last five 30-30 players who were subject to the amateur draft, four of them were first rounders. The other is former fifth-rounder Mookie Betts.
Well under six-feet tall and weighing 175 pounds, Mullins was easy to overlook. “He’s got everything you want,” Morales says. “It just happens to be in a 5’8 package.” (My wife says the same thing about me.)
Mullins is an exceptional athlete, and I expect him to win his first Gold Glove award this year. Check out these two defensive plays!
Morales believed that Mullins’ defensive prowess positioned him to be — worst-case scenario — a great extra outfielder. “He was a special defender… some guys are born to play center field, and he was one of them.”
Morales remembers the night he knew — absolutely knew — that Mullins was going to be a “slam-dunk big leaguer.”
Scouting in the Carolinas, Morales had the opportunity to see some of the guys he had signed play minor league ball.
In 2016, Mullins was with Delmarva, the Orioles Low-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League. Morales remembers a blowout win against Kannapolis in which Mullins had multiple hits and RBIs. The score was 15-8 or so in the ninth inning.
Mullins was playing a slightly shallow center. The hitter made hard contact, and off the bat it was clear to Morales that the ball was going over the outfielder’s head.
With a big lead in the ninth inning, it’s easy for a player to throttle down his effort. No need to risk injury or looking foolish on a ball that will ultimately be an inconsequential tally in the box score.
Morales watched Mullins take off after the ball. Conjuring a comparison to Jim Edmonds, Mullins laid out onto the warning track, dove into the wall, and made the catch.
That’s when the scout knew.
There’s an inherent integrity to a competitor who doesn’t take plays off. It’s what I believe has enabled Mullins to thrive on a team that has lost more than 100 games in each of his three (162-game) seasons with the club. It’s what helped fuel his breakout season just two years after he hit .094 over 74 plate appearances.
It also speaks highly of Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who has created an environment in which players don’t quit and are inspired to play like they’re in a pennant race. (The team just took two of three from the playoff-hopeful Red Sox.)
Now, Mullins is making his manager’s job easier. He’s the player who will save Orioles baseball.
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I love a good origin story. Great reporting.