He was here when it was all torn down to the bone. On that opening day in 2019, after Cedric Mullins ran down the orange carpet from center field to the dirt for the first time, he featured on a team full of fringe big leaguers.

In truth, Mullins was one of the fringe major leaguers, at least at that point. He was 24 and hit just .094 in the 22 games he played for the Orioles that season. Soon, Mullins was back at Triple-A Norfolk, waiting for the final bit of seasoning required to make him a regular in Baltimore.

That would come. An All-Star appearance arrived in 2021. By 2024 he could be called a veteran in a young clubhouse. And on Monday, when his name was called and he began the jog from center field along the orange carpet, the eruption from the 45,002 fans at Camden Yards was befitting of a player with that level of service for the organization — for a player who was here at the Orioles’ lowest and has endured as the club returned to the peak of back-to-back seasons with more than 90 wins.

It was an eruption befitting of a player who might be experiencing his final home opener at Camden Yards wearing the home whites.

“I feel like this one was probably the longest the run has felt in a long time,” Mullins said, and he’s experienced his fair share of those runs. “I just really enjoyed that moment.”

Mullins is the longest-tenured player on the Orioles; in the time since his 2019 opening day run-out, he has watched the roster rebuild around him. And yet he has started in center field five straight years, a mainstay despite a constant pipeline of prospects growing into roles around him.

He watched as Trey Mancini and Austin Hays and Anthony Santander departed. And he knows, even if he’s adamant in how he’s not focusing on it, that he could be next. Mullins will be a free agent after this season unless general manager Mike Elias seals an extension before the start of free agency.

So Mullins soaked in that ovation — first when he jogged down the orange carpet, next when he drove a two-run double into the right-center field gap in the first inning, and again in the eighth once his two-run single snuck through the infield.

Those two bookend knocks helped seal the Orioles’ 8-5 victory against the Boston Red Sox, and they continued what has been a dominant beginning of the season for Mullins. Through five games, Mullins has seven hits and 10 RBI.

“Ced’s playing with a ton of life right now,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “These first five games, he’s playing really, really good baseball and taking great at-bats. Our best baseball has always been when Ced’s going.”

That success is a continuation of his performance late in the 2024 season, even if his overall numbers aren’t flattering. He entered the All-Star break with a .629 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, but Mullins’ late-season surge helped raise that to .710 by the season’s end.

Much of that was down to Mullins’ strong September display. In 23 games that month, Mullins hit .286 with an .857 OPS. It served as a springboard into the winter and spring training, and he’s still riding that high early in the regular season.

“I was really proud of Ced, through the second half of last year, just kind of adopting this day-by-day mentality,” hitting coach Cody Asche said. “He carried that success into the offseason, had a really good offseason. He came into camp, and I told him many times, ‘This is kind of the best I’ve seen you early in the season in a long time.’ And it’s a big year for Ced, too. I think he knows what’s at stake, but coming into a free agency year, he’s out to prove who he is, and who he has been.”

On Monday at Camden Yards, Mullins didn’t need to prove anything but did so anyway. The reception from a sold-out crowd showed the appreciation for the long-serving Mullins even before he drove in four runs.

And as he ran down the carpet, Mullins thought back on his other opening day entrances. That 2019 one sticks out as the first home opener he played in, and the feelings of pageantry and excitement — even at the beginning of what would be a 108-loss season in which Mullins would play just 22 times — was addictive.

He’s grown since then, of course.

“I see it in my face, for one,” Mullins joked.

But he has a word to the wise he wishes he could pass on to the player from six years ago.

“If I had talked to my past self about that moment, like, ‘Hey, it’s OK to feel anxious. It’s OK to be emotional about what’s going on,‘” Mullins said. “It’s about controlling those emotions into a positive way, I think that’s what I’ve been able to do over time.”

He did so admirably Monday, in what could be his last time experiencing a Camden Yards home opener. He is poised to do so for the rest of this season, too, especially with outfielder Colton Cowser expected to miss two months with a fractured thumb.

The hype, for years now, has centered on the former No. 1 prospects who populate this lineup. But during the home opener, Mullins reiterated to many within Camden Yards how much he’s brought, and how much he can still bring.