Trey Mancini is coming home: Orioles fan favorite will retire as a Baltimore Oriole
Trey Mancini’s baseball career will end where it belongs — in Baltimore.
The Baltimore Orioles announced Friday that Mancini will sign a one-day contract with the organization and officially retire as an Oriole on Saturday, Sept. 19, when Baltimore hosts the Milwaukee Brewers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The 4:05 p.m. game will become a celebration of far more than Mancini’s statistics.
Baltimore plans an extensive pregame ceremony honoring one of the most popular Orioles of his generation, with former teammates, coaches, staff members, medical professionals and others who played significant roles in Mancini’s life expected to participate. Mancini will also throw the ceremonial first pitch.
It is a fitting conclusion for a player whose relationship with Baltimore ultimately became about much more than baseball.
Mancini played 701 of his 836 career major league games with the Orioles, hitting 117 of his 129 career home runs in an Orioles uniform. He experienced Baltimore’s final postseason run of the Buck Showalter era, endured the painful years of the rebuild, became the face of the franchise and then authored one of the greatest comeback stories in Baltimore sports history.
Now he gets to officially leave baseball as an Oriole.
From eighth-round pick to face of the Orioles
There was never any guarantee Mancini would make it this far.
Baltimore selected him in the eighth round of the 2013 MLB Draft with the 249th overall pick out of Notre Dame. He began his professional career that summer with the Aberdeen IronBirds before progressing through Delmarva, Frederick, Bowie and Norfolk.
Mancini became one of the Orioles organization’s better minor league success stories.
His breakout came in 2015. After beginning the year with Frederick, Mancini was promoted to Double-A Bowie and won the Eastern League batting and slugging titles. He hit .359 in 84 games for the Baysox and continued forcing his way up Baltimore’s organizational depth chart.
The Orioles finally summoned Mancini to Baltimore in September 2016.
He did not take long to announce his arrival.
Mancini homered in his major league debut against the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 20, 2016. He homered again in his second career start and finished his brief first taste of the majors with three home runs in only 14 at-bats.
Baltimore had found a hitter.
Mancini becomes an everyday Oriole
Mancini made the Orioles’ Opening Day roster in 2017 and quickly established himself as a fixture.
Playing primarily in the outfield despite being developed as a first baseman, Mancini hit .293 with 24 home runs, 26 doubles and 78 RBIs during his rookie season.
He followed that with another 24 home runs in 2018.
Then came the best offensive season of his career.
Mancini was outstanding for a rebuilding Orioles club in 2019, hitting .291 with a .364 on-base percentage, .535 slugging percentage and .899 OPS. He established career highs with 35 home runs, 38 doubles, 106 runs and 97 RBIs.
The Orioles named Mancini their Most Valuable Player that season, and he also earned the organization’s Heart and Hustle Award.
At a time when Baltimore was undergoing one of the most extensive rebuilds in franchise history, Mancini became one of the recognizable faces who remained.
Then baseball became secondary.
The diagnosis that changed everything
Mancini arrived at spring training in 2020 expecting to prepare for another baseball season.
Routine blood work during his physical revealed something was wrong.
Further testing led to a devastating diagnosis: Stage 3 colon cancer.
Mancini underwent surgery to remove a malignant tumor and then spent approximately six months undergoing chemotherapy. His 2020 baseball season disappeared as he fought something infinitely more important than opposing pitchers.
The Orioles and Baltimore rallied around him.
The organization produced its now-famous “F16HT” shirts — incorporating Mancini’s No. 16 into the word “fight” — with proceeds supporting the Colorectal Cancer Alliance’s Patient and Family Support Services.
According to the Orioles, that effort generated more than $80,000.
And the message extended beyond a T-shirt.
“F16HT” became inseparable from Mancini’s story.
The comeback
Mancini’s cancer went into remission.
Then he did something remarkable.
He came back.
On April 1, 2021, Mancini returned to a major league field for the Orioles, nearly two years after his previous regular-season game.
The statistics from that season remain impressive considering everything that preceded them.
Mancini played 147 games, collecting 142 hits, 33 doubles, 21 home runs and 71 RBIs.
But the numbers barely capture what the season represented.
Mancini was back playing Major League Baseball after Stage 3 cancer and chemotherapy.
MLB subsequently named him the 2021 American League Comeback Player of the Year.
His return also produced one of the memorable moments of the 2021 baseball season when Mancini participated in the Home Run Derby at Coors Field.
He reached the championship round before falling to Pete Alonso.
For Orioles fans, simply watching Mancini compete on that stage was bigger than the result.
The emotional end of his first Orioles tenure
By 2022, Baltimore’s rebuild was finally beginning to produce results.
Mancini was still there.
He hit .268 with 10 home runs and 41 RBIs through 92 games for Baltimore that season.
Then came another unforgettable Camden Yards moment.
On July 28, playing what ultimately became his final home game before the trade deadline, Mancini hit an inside-the-park home run after a fly ball was lost in the sun.
Four days later, Baltimore traded him.
The Orioles sent Mancini to the Houston Astros as part of a three-team transaction on Aug. 1, 2022.
For a fan base that had watched Mancini develop from a minor leaguer into a star and then watched him survive cancer and return to baseball, the trade was understandably emotional.
But Mancini was heading to a contender.
And several months later, he became a World Series champion.
A World Series ring
Mancini appeared in 51 regular-season games for Houston following the trade, hitting eight home runs and driving in 22.
He struggled offensively during the postseason, but still found a way to contribute to Houston’s championship.
His defensive play at first base during Game 5 of the World Series became an important moment in the Astros’ victory over Philadelphia.
Houston ultimately defeated the Phillies in six games.
Mancini had his ring.
After everything he had gone through, the former Orioles eighth-round pick and cancer survivor was a World Series champion.
Life after Baltimore
Mancini signed with the Chicago Cubs before the 2023 season.
He appeared in 79 games, batting .234 with four home runs and 28 RBIs before Chicago designated him for assignment in August. He later signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati and briefly played for Triple-A Louisville.
His path back to the majors became considerably more difficult from there.
Mancini did not play during the 2024 regular season. He returned in 2025 with Triple-A Reno in Arizona’s organization and proved he could still hit, batting .308 with an .895 OPS in 74 games.
Still, a major league opportunity did not arrive.
Mancini tried again in 2026.
The Los Angeles Angels signed him to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
Then came comeback No. 2.
One last trip back to the majors
On June 8, the Angels selected Mancini’s contract.
It had been 1,043 days since his previous Major League Baseball game.
Mancini was 34 years old. He had already beaten cancer, returned to the majors once, won a World Series and then spent years trying to get back.
He made it.
Mancini appeared in five games for Los Angeles and went 4-for-13 (.308) with four RBIs.
The Angels designated him for assignment June 17. He became a free agent several days later.
On Aug. 18, Mancini announced his retirement.
His message specifically acknowledged the bond he maintained with Orioles fans.
“There is nothing more special in sports than a connection between a team and their fans,” Mancini wrote, “and I was lucky enough to feel that everywhere I played.”
Ten days later, the Orioles announced that Mancini would get one more Baltimore homecoming.
Mancini’s final career numbers
Mancini finishes his major league career with:
836 games
805 hits
129 home runs
404 RBIs
408 runs
.263 batting average
.327 on-base percentage
.448 slugging percentage
.775 OPS
His Orioles numbers are even more significant to Baltimore fans.
Across 701 games from 2016-22, Mancini produced 117 home runs, 137 doubles and 350 RBIs while batting .270/.334/.463.
His 2019 season remains his statistical peak: 35 homers, 97 RBIs and an .899 OPS.
But Mancini’s Orioles legacy was never going to fit neatly onto the back of a baseball card.
F16HT will permanently remain at Camden Yards
Perhaps the most meaningful portion of the Orioles’ Sept. 19 celebration involves the “F16HT” sign.
The sign has remained in the home dugout tunnel at Camden Yards every season since Mancini’s cancer battle in 2020.
Baltimore plans to relocate the existing sign to the Club Level archives.
It will not disappear from the dugout, however.
The Orioles will unveil a new permanent F16HT sign during the pregame ceremony.
That means future Orioles will continue walking past the message.
It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate tribute.
Orioles to reunite Mancini with those who helped him
The ceremony will also extend well beyond former players.
According to the Orioles, former teammates, coaches, staff members, medical professionals and others who played important roles throughout Mancini’s life and career will participate.
That is particularly appropriate considering how closely Mancini’s baseball story became intertwined with his medical journey.
In his retirement announcement, Mancini specifically thanked Orioles trainers and the doctors and nurses at Johns Hopkins Hospital who treated him.
He will then throw the ceremonial first pitch.
For one afternoon, No. 16 will once again be the center of attention at Camden Yards.
Special F16HT ticket benefits Mancini’s foundation
Baltimore is also using the celebration to continue Mancini’s charitable work.
The Orioles are offering a special ticket package that includes admission to the Sept. 19 game and a limited-edition F16HT hat.
The Orioles’ ticket page says $5 from each package sold will benefit the Trey Mancini Foundation.
The foundation supports people facing food insecurity, illness and other hardships.
Mancini will also take part in a kids-only autograph session before the game near Section 16. It begins at 2:05 p.m. and is limited to children 12 and younger, with autographs available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The celebration will be part of the Orioles’ Fan Appreciation Weekend.
More than an Oriole
Plenty of better baseball players have worn an Orioles uniform.
Few have developed the connection with Baltimore that Mancini did.
Part of that came from circumstance.
He arrived when Baltimore still had a playoff-caliber team in 2016. He established himself as the franchise collapsed. He stayed through 115 losses in 2018 and 108 more in 2019.
When there were not many reasons for Orioles fans to watch, Mancini was one of them.
Then came cancer.
Baltimore watched him disappear from baseball because of a life-threatening illness. Fans followed his treatments and recovery. They celebrated when he announced he was cancer-free.
And when Mancini ran onto a major league field again, the comeback became something Baltimore could celebrate with him.
That is a bond statistics cannot explain.
MSB Take
This is exactly how Trey Mancini’s baseball story should end.
He won a World Series with Houston. He played for the Cubs. He fought his way back to the majors with the Angels this summer.
But Trey Mancini is an Oriole.
Years from now, when Baltimore fans hear his name, they probably will not immediately think about 129 career home runs or a .263 batting average.
They will remember No. 16.
They will remember the home runs during some extremely difficult Orioles seasons. They will remember the 2019 breakout. They will remember the Home Run Derby.
Most of all, they will remember F16HT.
Mancini fought Stage 3 colon cancer, underwent chemotherapy and returned to play 147 games the following season. He did not merely make a ceremonial appearance. He hit 21 home runs and drove in 71 runs.
Then, years later, after his major league career appeared to be finished, he fought his way back again.
That is Trey Mancini.
There is also something special about the Orioles making F16HT a permanent part of the Camden Yards dugout. Players who were children when Mancini was diagnosed with cancer will someday walk through that tunnel and see it.
Mancini’s name will remain connected to Baltimore long after Sept. 19.
But on that Saturday afternoon, Birdland gets one final opportunity to welcome him home.
One more Orioles contract.
One more trip onto the field at Camden Yards.
One more first pitch.
And then Trey Mancini can officially retire the way he should:
as a Baltimore Oriole.
