With Cedric Mullins seemingly on his way out of Baltimore, the O’s outfield may have more questions than answers come August 1.
With only two days left until the trade deadline, some position groups are sure to look very different when the Orioles take the field Friday in Chicago. We’ve already seen a shakeup in the bullpen, with Bryan Baker being shipped to Tampa and Gregory Soto traded to Queens. The starting rotation may soon experience a similar reshuffling, with Charlie Morton, Zach Eflin and Tomoyuki Sugano all potentially heading out the door. And then there’s the outfield.
In the coming days, we’re likely to see one or two starting outfielders head out the door. Left behind will be a pair of outfielders with more questions than answers, and a minor league system with prospects that may not be ready. And so, for a position group that was once one of the Orioles’ biggest strengths, the question of how the outfield will retool post-trade deadline lingers.
The trade pieces: Cedric Mullins and Ramón Laureano
The expectation since the beginning of the season has been that 2025 would be Cedric Mullins’ last campaign in Baltimore. Most expected him to go down the Anthony Stantander path: give the O’s everything he has in 2025, contribute to another playoff run and then be allowed to walk at season’s end for a payday in free agency. Instead, the Orioles’ struggles have expedited that timeline, with Mullins now likely to leave via trade in July rather than free agency in November.
Over the first four months of 2025, we’ve gotten the full Cedric Mullins experience. Through April, he was the Orioles’ best hitter, posting a .278 average and .927 OPS with 6 HR, 20 RBI and 5 SB.
From May through the All-Star break, that production cratered, with Mullins’ .185 average and .588 OPS matching the struggles of the team as a whole. Recently, though, we’ve seen the best of Mullins’ come back, including a pair of jaw-dropping defensive plays and his 100th and 101st career home runs.
The best-case scenario for Mullins is a Trey Mancini-like deadline move to a contender who can give him the chance for a ring (or at least a playoff win). The Orioles are decently positioned to replace his defense and power, but replacing his presence as the last pre-Elias Oriole will be nigh impossible.
The decision Baltimore has to make on Laureano is a lot tougher. The long-time former Athletics outfielder has taken his second chance with the Orioles and given them near All-Star level returns. With the 31-year-old currently producing a career-high .867 OPS, and with a $6.5M team option for 2026, Laureano could be a budget-friendly piece to help the O’s contend next season.
However, that additional year of team control makes Laureano perhaps the O’s most attractive trade piece. Several national MLB writers have suggested that if Baltimore wants to maximize its trade returns, they could be forced to package Laureano with Mullins or Ryan O’Hearn. However, that plan only meshes with the stated intention of competing in 2026 if the prospect(s) they get back for Laureano are traded in the offseason for a major league contributor.
The Question Marks: Tyler O’Neill and Colton Cowser
The possibility of a 2026 outfield built around Laureano, O’Neill and Cowser sounds good in theory. However, the play of the latter two this season has presented some questions that are hard to ignore.
For O’Neill, there will always be a lingering question of whether he can stay healthy. Through a combination of neck and shoulder problems, we’ve already seen him miss 40+ games of his first season in Baltimore.
A healthy O’Neill is still a valuable piece for a team with aspirations of contention, as we’ve seen him post .261/.346/.587 triple slash since returning from the IL. Still, O’Neill has only played 100+ games in a season twice in his eight-year big league career, meaning the O’s will probably need to take more Laureano-esque fliers in order to have a TO’N insurance policy.
The question surrounding Cowser is what kind of hitter he profiles as going forward. Through 700+ big league ABs, he has a .226 career average and .308 OBP and is a far cry from the hit-over-power profile we saw during his rise through the minors. Cowser’s shown the defensive chops to at least be the short-term replacement for Mullins in CF, but the O’s will need his bat to at least return to his 2024 levels if he’s to remain a guaranteed starter.
The prospects: Enrique Bradfield Jr. and Dylan Beavers
The presumption heading into the season was that Enrique Bradfield Jr. would continue his rise through the minor league system and be the next in the lineage of Orioles center fielders. passing from Adam Jones, to Mullins, to Bradfield.
Instead, Bradfield’s progress this year has been much like the big league ball club: stagnant and mired by injury. Multiple hamstring injuries have limited EBJ to only 113 ABs at Double-A this season, with the O’s current No. 2 prospect only slashing .257/.396/.372 and posting 14 SB. With Bradfield yet to get a single AB at Norfolk, likely we won’t see him in Baltimore until later next season, at the earliest.
Bradfield’s struggles have propelled Beavers to the head of the queue as the next outfielder likely to get the call to Baltimore. After hitting only .242 between Chesapeake and Norfolk in 2024, Beavers has enjoyed a breakout season in 2025, raising his average to .303 while being one of only four players in the International League with 10+ HRs and 20+ SBs.
Beavers doesn’t have elite traits like Bradfield’s speed and defense or Samuel Basallo’s power, but he’s shown average to above-average traits across all five tools. The growth he’s shown in 2025 makes him someone the O’s need to give a shot once Mullins and/or Laureano are gone, if for no other reason than to determine if this outfield will need further reinforcement in the offseason.