A familiar face is heading back to the AL East.

Per Marc Topkin with the Tampa Bay Times, Cedric Mullins has inked a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays. The deal is still pending a physical, and the financial terms of the agreement are not known at this time. Mullins was a free agent for the first time in his career.

A longtime Baltimore Oriole, Mullins spent eight seasons with the club that drafted him in 2015 before he was dealt to the New York Mets at last year’s trade deadline in exchange for three players. Between both squads, Mullins posted a .216/.299/.391 slash line with 23 doubles, 17 home runs, and 59 RBIs to the tune of a .690 OPS. Following the trade, Mullins struggled with the Mets, producing a .565 OPS with a .284 OBP down the stretch with New York, who eventually missed out on the playoffs.

For his career, the left-handed bat owns a .247/.317/.420 slash line with 103 homers and a .736 OPS.

A contact first bat who has patrolled centre field for most of his career, Mullins’ best season came back in 2021, where he earned All-Star honours and won the Silver Slugger Award. Across 159 games, he produced a .878 OPS and a career high 300 home runs with 30 stolen bases, finishing with a 6.2 bWAR. In 2023, he became the seventh Oriole in franchise history to hit for the cycle in a 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

With the Rays, the North Carolina product will slot in alongside Jake Magnum, Chandler Simpson, and Jonny DeLuca for reps in centre field. In 2025, Tampa Bay used seven different players in the position, including Kameron Misner, who was traded earlier this winter to the Kansas City Royals for a player to be named later.

Mullins is expected to be the Rays’ starting centre fielder in 2026.

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