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Cedric Mullins thought he had turned a corner with his upper-leg injury, but the Orioles outfielder is back on the injured list.
Baltimore placed Mullins on the 10-day injured list with a right adductor groin strain, a designation retroactive to July 16. It’s a similar injury to what Mullins dealt with when a groin strain landed him on the injured list from May 30 to June 24.
Manager Brandon Hyde initially said the latest injury — which has held him out of games recently — was more to do with his quad. But it’s a lingering issue that is nagging his upper leg in general. While Mullins participated in agility drills and hitting and throwing sessions Tuesday, the decision was made Wednesday morning to put him on the shelf until at least next week.
“Groin, quad. Felt it in his quad originally. It’s kind of moving around,” Hyde said. “The soreness is moving around in that upper leg area. So it’s a lower-body injury that we just want to take a little bit more time with and be careful with. It was progressing. It has been progressing. It’s just not progressing at the rate that we were hoping, so the right thing to do is make sure he’s all the way healthy and running well before we activate him.”
Once he returned last month, Mullins took a few weeks to get back into form. He had an .835 OPS at the time of the injury and was looking much more like the All-Star version of himself from 2021 than he did in 2022. Mullins went 5-for-35 with 11 strikeouts in his first 10 games back, then had five extra-base hits and a 1.107 OPS in his six games leading up to the injury.
The Orioles weathered Mullins’ previous absence thanks to the revival of outfielder Aaron Hicks, who the team signed as a free agent after he was released by the Yankees.
Now, the Orioles may rely more heavily on rookie Colton Cowser, a former first-round pick who despite some poor batted-ball luck is hitting the ball hard and walking at an attractive rate as he gets acclimated to the majors.
“Ced’s a big part of our club,” Hyde said. “We’re going to have other things these last couple months also. There’s going to be other guys who have to miss some time too. That’s just the way this game works when you play every night. These are the things that happen. We pick up the pieces for Ced. We’ve done it in the past, and hopefully we can do it again.”
Hyde said he was hopeful the Orioles would get Mullins back when he’s eligible to come off the injured list in the middle of next week.
“I hope that’s a possibility, but I was hoping he’d be ready later this week, and it hasn’t happened, so I hope so,” Hyde said.
Columnist Jon Meoli contributed to this story.
andy.kostka@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Andy Kostka is an Orioles beat writer for The Baltimore Banner. He previously covered the Orioles for The Baltimore Sun. Kostka graduated from the University of Maryland and grew up in Rockville.
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