'Felt like home': Trey Mancini signs 1-day contract to retire with Orioles

Matt Weyrich, Baltimore Sun on Sep 19, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BALTIMORE — Trey Mancini is back where it all began, just as he knew he would be.

Just over a month after he announced his plans to step away from professional baseball, Mancini returned to Camden Yards on Saturday and signed a one-day contract to officially retire with the Orioles organization that drafted, developed and supported him through cancer treatment and his emotional comeback.

The Orioles rolled out the orange carpet for Mancini, 34, by hosting a news conference and pregame ceremony in which he threw out the ceremonial first pitch to infielder Coby Mayo, who now wears his old No. 16. Baltimore also revealed a new, permanent sign with his “F16HT” logo and signature in the dugout tunnel to replace the poster that had been hung up since the 2020 season when he began chemotherapy treatment.

“This is one of the great honors of my life,” Mancini said in a news conference before the ceremony. “When I retired a couple months ago, I hadn’t reached out because I wasn’t necessarily expecting this treatment. I know that there have been players that were better players than me overall that haven’t gotten this treatment and haven’t gotten to retire with the team that they came up with and played with for a long time and really identified with.”

A father of an 11-month-old daughter, the now-former first baseman and outfielder said he hadn’t made any plans to coach or broadcast to get back into the game. But flanked by his wife, Sara, and daughter, Sadie, as well as his parents, siblings, agent, close friends and former teammates, Mancini was filled with gratitude.

“It’s something that I don’t take for granted at all, and even after I was traded, I think there’s a piece of me that was left here and always knew that I’d come back after my playing days and would always affiliate myself with this franchise,” Mancini said. “It felt like home to me from the day I was drafted in 2013, and that never stopped until I got traded in 2022. So, I couldn’t have imagined starting my career anywhere else and being anywhere else.”

Baltimore selected Mancini in the eighth round of the 2013 MLB draft, and he developed into a fan favorite during the ballclub’s rebuilding years. He appeared in 701 games across eight seasons with the Orioles, hitting .270 with 117 home runs and a .797 OPS before the club traded him to the Houston Astros at the 2022 deadline.

“There’s a lot that we can say about him, but he has been one of the most beloved players in the history of this franchise,” Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias said. “There are certain players that just really connect with Baltimore and with this community on a natural basis, and Trey has always been one of those guys. Getting to work with him behind the scenes for a few years, an A-plus teammate, an A-plus worker and, as he’s proven, just one of the more courageous young men you’ll ever be around.”

However, his career and life first took a turn in 2020 when he was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer. Mancini underwent chemo for six months, and he missed the entire season, completing his recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic. He made it back in time for opening day the following season and returned to form, hitting 21 homers to receive an invite to the Home Run Derby and win the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award.

“It was some of the best and worst moments of my life,” Mancini said. “But ultimately, the people here — like Pat Wesley is back there, one of the trainers who helped catch the blood test when he did — I always say it, and I’ll never stop saying it, I owe my life to those guys, and just so many great times. So many tough years too.”

Mancini’s career continued to have twists and turns even after he left Baltimore. He won a World Series title with Houston in 2022 and signed a two-year deal with the Chicago Cubs in free agency, but the Cubs cut him before the 2023 season ended. It would be one month short of three years before Mancini would play another MLB game, mounting several comeback attempts until the Los Angeles Angels called him up in June.

Though he only played five games, Mancini got the sense of fulfillment he needed to feel comfortable calling it a career.

“It just kept eating away at me that I wasn’t going to be a major leaguer again, and I thought that I could do it,” Mancini said. “I knew it would probably be on a temporary basis, but the whole goal was to make it back up and end my career on my terms more so than how they were kind of ended for me three years prior. And I knew that the rest of my life I could look back and have no regrets.”