CHICAGO — Monday, on the other side of the Orioles’ weekend series at Wrigley Field, will mark 10 years since Trey Mancini played his first game in Baltimore’s organization. Before the matchup between his new and old teams began, he spoke about what the portion of the past decade spent with the Orioles meant to him.
“If you would have told me 10 years ago everything that would have happened between then and now, I don’t know if I would have believed it back then,” Mancini said. “It’s always gonna hold such a special place in my heart.”
Mancini batted sixth and played first base for the Chicago Cubs in Friday’s series opener against the Orioles. The 31-year-old was Baltimore’s eighth-round pick in 2013 and made his major league debut three years later. Across a six-year run as an Oriole that ended with last year’s trade to the Houston Astros, Mancini endeared himself to the fan base and the Baltimore community with his play, his personality, and his battle against and return from stage 3 colon cancer.
“It’s where I met my wife; it’s where my life was saved,” Mancini said. “I’m always indebted to Baltimore, the community, [Johns] Hopkins and the organization. It’s a special connection that will never go away, for sure.”
At the time of the trade, Mancini was the Orioles’ longest-tenured player but was likely to become a free agent the following offseason, with a mutual option in his contract he long acknowledged was unlikely to be picked up by both sides. The three-team swap with the Tampa Bay Rays brought back two right-handed pitchers Baseball America now ranks among Baltimore’s top 20 prospects in Chayce McDermott and Seth Johnson.
The deal also came before the Orioles faced the Astros at Minute Maid Park and Camden Yards. Thanks to those matchups, Mancini has already shaken the jitters from facing his former organization.
“It was definitely a little weird last year,” he said. “But now, a year removed, it truly is just like any other series, and it’s just a team that I happen to have a lot of friends on, basically.”
He said many of those former teammates were at his wedding this offseason to former Mid-Atlantic Sports Network reporter Sara Perlman, and he’s kept up with them as the Orioles have gotten off to a 43-25 that Mancini said “is no surprise to me.” Mancini spent time before Friday’s game catching up with Orioles players, coaches and staff, frequently doling out hugs and high-fives.
He was the Most Valuable Oriole in 2019, one of three players in the American League with at least 35 home runs and 35 doubles that year, but missed the 2020 season undergoing chemotherapy after a tumor was discovered in spring training. He had a procedure to remove it the same day the coronavirus pandemic prompted a delay to the MLB season.
“I’ll never forget that day,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.
Mancini returned the next year as the sport’s best story, winning numerous comeback player of the year honors and finishing as the runner-up in the Home Run Derby. He spoke openly about his battle, even as the continual discussion wore on him mentally and emotionally, because he wanted to show others facing the disease what could be achieved on the other side.
“You appreciate the guy even more coming back from what he came back from and how tough he is and how strong he is and how he handled everything,” Hyde said. “Just so much admiration for him.”
At the time of the trade, Baltimore was a .500 team, playing their best stretch since Mancini arrived amid their most recent playoff run in 2016. They entered Friday’s series opener having gone 75-53 since the trade, a 95-win pace for a full season.
Mancini won the World Series with Houston, making a key defensive play at first base in Game 5 against the Philadelphia Phillies, but he has largely struggled offensively since the trade. By OPS+, he rated as above average offensively with Baltimore in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022. He has been about 25% below league average since being traded.
He got off to an early power surge for the Astros, but his first postseason hit didn’t come in his 19th at-bat, then he signed a two-year, $14 million contract with the Cubs in January. Thus far, Mancini has hit .237 with a .647 OPS for Chicago and said his season has been “a little up and down.”
After trading away a fan favorite, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias repeatedly noted he looked forward to engaging with Mancini as a free agent. But asked Friday whether he imagined a return to Baltimore, Mancini said he “mostly knew it was off the table,” saying his focus was on getting married. He allowed his agent to handle the particulars, taking advice from players who had been free agents.
He was pleased to land in Chicago, where many of the friends he made at Notre Dame and one of his sisters live. But Mancini added the process was largely “out of my control.”
“It was such a special connection between me, the city and organization there,” Mancini said, “and that’s never gonna go away.”
Mancini’s ties to the organization are continuing through his efforts to support one of his former teammates. Former Baltimore pitcher David Hess announced last month that he had a recurrence of cancer, and the Orioles partnered with the Trey Mancini Foundation to auction off items in support of Hess and his family.
“What David’s going through, nobody deserves that, but he’s probably the last person that deserves it,” Mancini said. “David’s one of the best people I know. It’s terrible what he’s going through, but he’s handling it so well and like a champ, and that’s who he is.”
