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Rays' low-risk outfield gamble looks exactly like last summer's flop originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Tampa Bay Rays were a busy team over the offseason. They signed a handful of free agent contracts, one being a one-year deal for Cedric Mullins.
Mullins was coming off a season split between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets, where he struggled. Across 133 games, he hit .216/.299/.391 with 17 home runs and 59 runs batted in.
The Rays were hoping that he could bounce back, but that has just not been the case. He's been playing more or less the same as he did last season.
MORE: This versatile Rays' star is doing everything at the plate right now
Rays' low-risk outfield gamble looks exactly like last summer's flop
Signing Mullins to a one-year deal wasn't a bad move for the Rays. They are known for getting the most out of their players and have a great developmental system, but it just has not worked out this time.
Mullins isn't doing much to help the Rays right now. Across 47 games, he is hitting .190/.257/.276 with three home runs and 15 runs batted in. With this, Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer tags Mullins as the Rays' least valuable player.
"Ressurecting Mullins' career was worth a shot for the Rays, but he looks like the same hitter who flopped with the Nets last summer. He's only batting .190, though he's at least 10 stolen bases to make himself useful on the basepaths."
The only thing Mullins is doing is racking up stolen bases. Luckily for him, the rest of the club is playing well and producing at the plate enough to be the top team in a stacked AL East division.
But if Mullins can figure it out offensively, this could be a really dangerous team. There's still time to turn this around, and if he can figure out his lack of barrels and get a better feel for the strike zone, he could return to the feared hitter he was with the Orioles.
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