Memories of Cedric Mullins

[G-Fafif]

Cedric the Ray next year. Cedric the Disaster the last two months of this past year.

[Edgy MD]

Twenty years passed between Matt Lawton and Cedric Mullins.

But weren't they the same? I mean, weren't they?

(Answer: Not really. The Mets probably would have made the playoffs if Cedric was that good.)

[Centerfield]

I had very low expectations for Mullins and somehow he fell way short of them.

The defense was puzzling. I watched him field and wondered how anyone could consider him a good defender.

Small guy. Didn’t hit the ball hard. I remember wondering how he ever hit a home run.

[Edgy MD]

Offensively and defensively, he was living on checks cashed years before.

Seemed like a perfectly honest guy, more or less trying hard, staying focused, nonetheless knowing in his heart but not able to admit it to his head that his game was just not going to come around.

Which I guess makes him less than perfectly honest.

I remember a late-game situation where one or two of the lesser Mets was/were coming up in the ninth with the game still within reach, thinking through the bench options and advocating out loud for them to pinch-hit with Cedric Mullins. Then I lamented my advocacy, because using Mullins meant that Mullins would be in the game.

When the best option is the most dis-spiriting one, the post-season is not looking to be in the cards.

[Gwreck]

It’s nothing against Cedric but it was a bad trade from the outset. Sure, he even underperformed the justifiably low expectations, but it wasn’t as if we had reason to expect he’d be good at all. A big misstep for Stearns.

[smg58]

He took playing time away from our younger players while being demonstrably worse. And there was never a good reason to think he was an upgrade.

I'd argue that the flyball he turned into an inside-the-park homerun in extra innings against the Nats was the defining moment of the season.

[metirish]

Yeah, just never got going, bad all around

[Edgy MD]

He took playing time away from our younger players while being demonstrably worse. And there was never a good reason to think he was an upgrade.

I'd argue that the flyball he turned into an inside-the-park homerun in extra innings against the Nats was the defining moment of the season.

 

Thanks for offering a specific memory. These threads solicit specifics but usually have more generalities. I am as guilty as most, in that regard.

As for PT, he also took time away from Jeff McNeil. Jeff was grossly out of position and playing hurt at the end of the year, and it is still hard to see how he would not have been the better player.

I also remember that the team gave up three flesh-and-blood players for him.

[MFS62]

He was the Al Moran of the outfield.

I plead "guilty" your honor.

Later

[Fman99]

Remember that time that he sucked? You know, the time he wore the Mets hat

[Cowtipper]

I had the slightest of hope he might recapture his old potential, but even I couldn't have imagined how poorly he was going to do with NY. Didn't realize he had 8 steals, so that's a little silver lining. Unfortunately, I have no real memories of him, I'll only remember him as once being a Met.

[MFS62]

Remember?

We’ve been drinking to forget.

Later

[The Hot Corner]

Cedric's offense had slipped just as badly as anticipated, but I hoped hoped that he could at least provide good defense in CF. Overall, he made me long to see Tyrone Taylor back in CF on a regular basis.

A complete bust with the Mets.

[Edgy MD]

A weird effect at baseball-reference is that, while Mullins' slash numbers were unambiguously stronger across the board with the Orioles, he managed a 0.5 bWAR as a Met, somehow more than the replacement-level 0.0 bWAR he logged with the O's.

It is probably some combination of him going 8-for-8 in steals with the Mets and having a largely hidden but surprisingly very bad season in the field in Baltimore, but the conclusion of bWAR appears to suggest that even the seemingly modestly decent performance that the Orioles were getting from the guy was an illusion — an illusion that I guess the Mets fell for.