On July 31, 2023, Trey Mancini played what he thought might be his last game in Major League Baseball.
Nearly three years later, Mancini returned.
Mancini, 34, made his return to the major leagues with the Los Angeles Angels against the Houston Astros on June 8. It was like he never left. He went 3-for-4 with an RBI single in a 5-4 loss.
“I never thought I would experience the same emotions and feelings that I did in my major league debut on a baseball field again. The whole day was recreated, I feel like, [last] Monday,” Mancini said on Glenn Clark Radio June 12. “It’s just something you can’t replicate — the nervousness, you get no sleep the night before, you don’t really eat that day. There’s nervousness, there’s adrenaline, there’s excitement. … It’s hard to describe, but I felt that again on Monday.”
The story of Mancini joining the Angels didn’t start in 2026. He was released by the Chicago Cubs in 2023 after he had signed a two-year deal with the club the previous offseason. He played for the Miami Marlins the following spring but exercised an opt-out at the end of camp. He didn’t play the rest of 2024.
Mancini worked with Brady Anderson, a familiar face from his days in Baltimore, after the 2024 season. He signed a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks and had some success with Triple-A Reno but didn’t make it back to the big leagues.
Mancini thought he was done — until Anderson reached out after being hired as the Angels’ major league hitting coach.
“Something inside of me was still just kind of eating away at me a little bit. I just felt like I could make it back, and then Brady was hired as the hitting coach in November,” Mancini said. “Late January, I got a call asking if I was ready to go, and quite frankly it was the last thing I expected. I had been playing tennis and pickleball for months. Like, I was playing on my country club’s tennis team.”
Mancini and Anderson first worked together in 2014 back when Mancini was in the Orioles’ farm system. Anderson was an Oriole from 1988-2001, best known for his 50-homer season in 1996. He was a member of the Orioles’ front office from 2012-2019 but often worked directly with players in the minors and majors.
Mancini was an Oriole from 2016-2022, totaling 117 homers and 350 RBIs. He was beloved by the fans, but a trade to the Houston Astros in 2022 ended his tenure in Baltimore. Anderson has always been in Mancini’s corner.
“I think his belief in me and other guys would tell you the same — he sees potential in guys when they might not necessarily believe in themselves or have the full confidence they can do things,” Mancini said. “Brady does and he’ll instill it in you. His teaching style and his communication has always just gotten through to me so well. It’s simple instruction and he’s really firm about what he believes in.”
Mancini’s comeback seems par for the course for a man who is no stranger to adversity. He was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2020, completed chemotherapy and returned to the field in 2021.
Mancini formed a special connection to Baltimore superfan Mo Gaba, who died of cancer at the age of 14 in 2020. Mancini has never forgotten him.
“I think about Mo all the time and just how strong and wise he was,” Mancini said. “He definitely would tell me to keep chasing it. I know that 100 percent for a fact. I think about him all the time, every time I watch a Ravens game and see the end zone I smile. It’s so cool to see the impact that he had on the city, me, countless other athletes and people in the city of Baltimore. I always want to make him proud and honor him and his memory.”
For more from Mancini, watch the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Angels