Orioles traded him to the New York Mets<\/a> midway through last season.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard to imagine how much has changed since 2023, when the Orioles appeared to be on a rocket ship to the moon. Baltimore won 192 games in 2023 and 2024 combined but lost all of its postseason games. <\/p>\n
Then the Orioles became sellers for two deadlines in a row, and they enter this four-game series against the major league-leading Rays in last place in the American League East.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think about that team, I think about, obviously, what could have been,\u201d Mullins said of the 2023 Orioles. \u201cObviously, the business side has its place in the game, a strong place in the game. We always have our dreams about being together for as long as possible, but things happen. It\u2019s funny how the stars have aligned to have guys get picked up, including myself, and being down here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker added: \u201cIt goes to show it\u2019s just a year-to-year thing. You see it all around the league. You can have a really good core and not have the right pieces around it or not be playing right at the right time. \u2026 It shows how good our league is top to bottom and how tough it really is to string together successful winning seasons and making the playoffs \u2014 and making it to the playoffs is just the first part. You\u2019ve got to keep winning, and it gets even harder at that time of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tampa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/RHJXU2HYF5FWTDJ7Y44N5WRIUQ.jpg\")
Rays reliever Tyler Wells pitches against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 5. (David Zalubowski\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n
When asked what allows the Rays to find success, Mullins said there\u2019s a commitment to doing the little things right, be it bunting or aggressive baserunning. Wells, in his limited time here, said the team\u2019s \u201cselfless\u201d attitude to generate runs any way possible is a defining characteristic that made his life pitching against Tampa Bay frustrating at times.<\/p>\n
Mullins noted that one similarity between the 2023 Orioles and 2026 Rays is success in close games. Baltimore finished that year with a 30-16 record in one-run games. Tampa Bay is 16-10 in one-run games this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re copying that here,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re able to pull out those close games and then have ones where you just kind of dominate, those wins add up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s more anecdotal, but it feels as if there is a lot of crossover among American League East rosters from year to year. <\/p>\n
Gunnar Henderson, one of the four active Orioles who also played on the 2023 team, said he has \u201cnoticed that trend, where a lot of people who are in this division tend to stay around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manager Craig Albernaz mentioned Steve Pearce as a good example of this. He played for all five American League East teams in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially with the old schedule where you had to play the division a lot more times than what you\u2019re doing now \u2026 you get more of a look at certain players” from a scouting perspective, Albernaz said. \u201cBut also, I mean, everyone knows about the division. Like, it\u2019s a beast of a division.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a player proves he can deal with the rigors of the AL East, Albernaz said, front offices likely value that intrinsic trait. \u201cSo, yeah, there\u2019s something there, I would imagine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Whatever it is \u2014 whether Hyde is in the background assembling his favorite players or not \u2014 the Rays have a healthy contingent of former Orioles. Mateo, through an interpreter, said \u201cit\u2019s a good thing\u201d to walk into the new clubhouse to see familiar faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes things comfortable,\u201d Mateo said, and his hug with Mullins proved the point only moments later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 If it wasn\u2019t for the Rays logos affixed to the lockers and woven into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-371838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}