It was the moment they had been waiting for.

Champagne flowed and cigars were smoked around them as the team celebrated clinching a playoff berth in 2023, but off to side, Anthony Santander, Austin Hays and Cedric Mullins huddled. The entire team was happy to get to this moment, but for these three it meant so much more.

They had manned the Orioles outfield during the treacherous days of the rebuild, suffering through 100-loss seasons, daydreaming about this moment during pitching changes for pitchers whose names they no longer remembered. They were the survivors of the rebuild, part of the foundation that the Orioles built upon, figures beloved by the city and teammates alike.

Baltimore’s success in 2023 and 2024, as they made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in a decade, wouldn’t have been possible without that trio.

Now, all three are gone. Hays was traded to the Phillies last July. Santander signed with the Blue Jays in the offseason. Mullins, the last holdout, is now on his way out too. He was traded to the New York Mets on Thursday, The Baltimore Banner confirmed.

“We always had the thought that we’d been in it for the long run,” Mullins said in March as he looked around an Orioles’ spring training clubhouse filled with unfamiliar faces.

He hoped his time in the only organization he’s ever know, the one that drafted him in the 13th round out of Campbell University and gave him his chance in 2018 when the Orioles were at another turning point, wouldn’t end like this. He didn’t want to be traded, he told the Banner before the deadline. This was his home.

But the Orioles are sellers, and Mullins, in the last year of his contract, was an asset they could part with for prospects. This is a business — sentimental memories hold no value when held up against young prospects who can help the team in the future.

“Baltimore’s taken my family in since the beginning,” said Mullins on Saturday after putting up a vintage performance in one of his last home games, complete with a home run and a diving catch. “It’s just one of those things where you just feel welcome.”

His time with the team hasn’t always gone smoothly, but it’s been his ability to overcome those challenges that has earned the respect of those around him. After making his debut in 2018, taking over in center field for Adam Jones, he spent the next season being shuttled back and forth to Triple-A. In 2020, he solidified himself as a major leaguer, while dealing with chronic pain from Crohn’s disease behind the scenes. He kept it quiet all season. Trey Mancini was battling colon cancer, and Mullins wanted all of the support to go toward him.

After having 10 to 15 centimeters of intestine removed and losing 20 pounds, Mullins arrived at camp the following spring ready to take the next step of his career. To do so, he said goodbye to switch-hitting. The results were immediate — he had his best year, complete with becoming the first Orioles player to have a 30-30 season, a trip to the All-Star Game, a ninth-place finish in MVP voting and a Silver Slugger Award. It would be a career season, one that he hasn’t been able to replicate.

His past four seasons, including this one, haven’t gone nearly as well. Stints on the injured list, plus months spent active but dealing with nagging pain, are partly to blame. Still, he’s found ways to shine for the Orioles, particularly his defense. He’s made so many stunning catches he can’t even remember them anymore.

“I almost want to hear someone else’s rankings at this point,” he said.

In his last homestand, he added a few more to the mix, including a diving catch Saturday and home run robberies Monday and Wednesday, in addition to going 9-for-20 in his final six games.

The crowd at Oriole Park at Camden Yards rewarded him with a standing ovation each time, making their appreciation known to the man who’s controlled center field through the highs and the lows.

The fans didn’t get to say goodbye to Hays, who was unexpectedly traded days before last year’s deadline, or Santander, who signed with a new team in the winter. But at least with Mullins, this was expected. He got his moment in the spotlight, and the fans got their chance to properly send off the last surviving player of the rebuild.

“The engagement that I have with the fans over the course of the years has been nothing short of awesome,” he said. “It’s just been fun, really fun being here.”

After his final game in an Orioles uniform Wednesday, Mullins was calm. He knew there was a strong possibility he would be traded — he and his wife had a plan in place in case it happened where she would stay with their daughter and he would move to his new city.

One of the best center fielders in team history, the only Orioles player to have a 30-30 season and one of three to steal 100 bases and hit 100 home runs, is gone. On Friday, someone new will man center field for the Orioles, and Mullins will be off to New York, an era officially closed.