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Why is Orioles’ Mullins’ 2025 salary larger than Mountcastle’s? | MAILBAG

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Question: How do arbitration-eligible players whose performance has declined over the last three years still get significant pay raises? It doesn’t make sense. Ryan Mountcastle has contributed more consistently over his last three years and gets less money than Cedric Mullins. Mullins has no arm and offensively has been erratic at best. From: Mirv Metzger

Answer: Mirv, the analytics point to Mullins being more valuable over the last three years than Mountcastle. From 2022-2024, Mullins’ WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is 9.4. Mountcastle’s is 6.2, though both had a 2.6 WAR in 2024.

Mullins is in his third and final year of arbitration eligibility while Mountcastle is in his second, and it’s natural that he’d get paid more. If they were both in the same year of arbitration eligibility, their salaries might be similar. Mullins will be paid $8.725 million while Mountcastle will get $6.787 million.

Question: Do you think the Orioles should sign any more free-agent pitchers? From: Rick Encina

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Answer: Rick, always good to hear from you. I think the Orioles have probably signed all the free-agent pitchers they’re going to sign. I wouldn’t be surprised if they traded for another starter, but other than perhaps a minor league contract, I think that signing two starters, Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton, and reliever Andrew Kittredge will be the end of their notable signings.

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

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