*Photo from Call to the Pen*
2020 was a dark year for the Baltimore Orioles already, due to Trey Mancini's cancer diagnosis. But there was another incident that year. On Wednesday, for the first time publicly, Orioles OF Cedric Mullins revealed he was battling Crohn's disease, in a video he shared to social media.
The nature of Crohn's disease is that it is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes digestive tract inflammation. Symptoms of this disease include weight loss, diarrhea, fatigue, and abdominal pain. Mullins initially thought that he had food poisoning, but got more concerned when Mancini was diagnosed with cancer.
Mullins said of his mindset at the time of the news that "I was kind of concerned because we had just gotten the word that Trey was going to be undergoing chemotherapy. There was a lot of worry."
Despite battling Crohn's, Mullins was able to play in the short 2020 season, finishing the year with a .271 batting average and a .723 OPS, hitting 3 home runs and driving in 12 runs, stealing 7 bases in 48 games played for the Orioles in the 60 game season.
That offseason, Mullins underwent surgery, with doctors officially diagnosing him with Crohn's and removing 4 to 6 inches of his intestines. After that, an infection caused him to lose 20 pounds, and Mullins had doubts in his mind of whether or not he would be able to come back to the field on time in 2021.
Return on time he did. Mullins posted a career year for one of the worst teams in baseball, finishing with a .291 batting average and .878 OPS, mashing 30 home runs and driving in 59 runs, stealing 30 bases in 159 games played, earning his first career all star selection in his 4th year in the league.
Mullins, and myself, encourage people who have symptoms of Crohn's, or any other disease, to get checked out by a medical professional. Mullins said "I think it's more important for people to not be afraid to get checked out. That's something that I've always had a hard time doing. That tough-guy mentality, like, 'It's just a little bruise, it's not a big deal,' we constantly do it."
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