Welcome to the Tampa Bay Orioles: ‘We just got Orioles 2.0 over here’

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — If it wasn’t for the Rays logos affixed to the lockers and woven into the carpet, one could be forgiven for believing this was some sort of time capsule from a not-too-distant past in Baltimore.

Instead, it was Friday inside the home clubhouse at Tropicana Field. There was Brandon Hyde, yelling over to Jorge Mateo, who soon wandered over to hug Cedric Mullins. On the field a few minutes later, Bryan Baker and Tyler Wells warmed up as part of the bullpen group.

“It’s pretty wild. Somehow the number keeps growing. The more the merrier, I guess,” said Baker, the right-hander who became a first-time All-Star this season. That’s when Wells popped into this gaggle with a few reporters.

“Oh, hey, dude,” Baker said. “I’m talking about you.”

“Oh, my bad,” Wells responded. “I’ll leave so I don’t have to hear.”

Just like old times.

These former Orioles are all now Rays. Wells, another right-handed reliever, only recently made the switch when Baltimore traded him to Tampa Bay ahead of the MLB deadline. Mateo, the lightning-quick middle infielder, just signed with the Rays this week. The Orioles traded Baker to the Rays last year, and Mullins, the stalwart center field defender, joined last winter as a free agent.

And Hyde? After he was fired by the Orioles early last season, he joined forces with Tampa Bay in a senior adviser role in the front office.

“Walking into the clubhouse today, a couple of the guys were like, ‘Man, we just got Orioles 2.0 over here right now,’” Baker said. “Whatever they’re doing, I’m all for it. More friends for me over here.”

On the Orioles’ active roster right now — meaning injured players don’t count — there are four players from the 2023 team that won 101 games. The Rays’ active roster also has four players from the 2023 Orioles. If Hyde can be lumped into that group, Tampa Bay outnumbers Baltimore 5-4.

Mullins dropped his head and laughed when he heard it said in those terms.

“That is kind of crazy,” said Mullins, who played parts of eight seasons with Baltimore before the Orioles traded him to the New York Mets midway through last season.

It’s 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.

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.

“I think about that team, I think about, obviously, what could have been,” Mullins said of the 2023 Orioles. “Obviously, 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’s funny how the stars have aligned to have guys get picked up, including myself, and being down here.”

Baker added: “It goes to show it’s 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. … 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 — and making it to the playoffs is just the first part. You’ve got to keep winning, and it gets even harder at that time of the year.”

When asked what allows the Rays to find success, Mullins said there’s a commitment to doing the little things right, be it bunting or aggressive baserunning. Wells, in his limited time here, said the team’s “selfless” attitude to generate runs any way possible is a defining characteristic that made his life pitching against Tampa Bay frustrating at times.

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.

“I think we’re copying that here,” he said. “When you’re able to pull out those close games and then have ones where you just kind of dominate, those wins add up.”

Perhaps it’s more anecdotal, but it feels as if there is a lot of crossover among American League East rosters from year to year.

Gunnar Henderson, one of the four active Orioles who also played on the 2023 team, said he has “noticed that trend, where a lot of people who are in this division tend to stay around it.”

Manager Craig Albernaz mentioned Steve Pearce as a good example of this. He played for all five American League East teams in his career.

“Especially with the old schedule where you had to play the division a lot more times than what you’re doing now … you get more of a look at certain players" from a scouting perspective, Albernaz said. “But also, I mean, everyone knows about the division. Like, it’s a beast of a division.”

When a player proves he can deal with the rigors of the AL East, Albernaz said, front offices likely value that intrinsic trait. “So, yeah, there’s something there, I would imagine,” he said.

Whatever it is — whether Hyde is in the background assembling his favorite players or not — the Rays have a healthy contingent of former Orioles. Mateo, through an interpreter, said “it’s a good thing” to walk into the new clubhouse to see familiar faces.

“It makes things comfortable,” Mateo said, and his hug with Mullins proved the point only moments later.