Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins was one of the biggest surprises in the 2021 MLB season. As it turns out, it was a feel-good story as well.
Wednesday, MLB Players Media shared the following video where Mullins revealed to MLB Players Media that he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2020 after playing through pain in the shortened season.
Here's Mullins:
The takeaways:
In the spring of 2020, Mullins felt ill for a bit and thought it might be food poisoning. At the time, fellow Orioles outfielder Trey Mancini was missing all the 2020 season due to colon cancer. As such, Mullins was certainly concerned with the pain that followed him throughout the season. It even got worse despite his undergoing treatment and taking antibiotics. He found out in November of 2020 that he had Crohn's disease and over 10 centimeters of his intestine was removed surgically. Due to an infection stemming from this, he lost around 20 pounds.He then built himself back up and had one of the great breakthroughs in 2021. Prior to last season, in 115 career games, Mullins hit .225/.290/.342 (72 OPS+) with seven homers and 10 steals. Last season, Mullins played in 159 games and hit .291/.360/.518 (135 OPS+) with 37 doubles, five triples, 30 homers, 59 RBI, 91 runs, 30 steals and 5.7 WAR. He started the All-Star Game and finished ninth in AL MVP voting despite playing for one of the worst teams in baseball. He was the only player to hit the 30-30 (home run-stolen base) plateau.
He now heads to his age-27 season an established star and is using this opportunity -- in the above video he says as much -- to get out the message that if you feel like something is wrong with you, see a doctor and shake the mentality that you're probably just OK and it'll go away. It's a compelling case, no doubt.
And, hey, we could all use a feel-good story, right? Thanks to Cedric Mullins for providing one today.
