The Los Angeles Angels are barely worthy of even their own fans’ attention. Still, the return of first baseman Trey Mancini to the majors Monday night likely will go down as one of the season’s most heartwarming stories.
Mancini, 34, made his first major-league appearance since July 31, 2023, a span of 1,043 days. His comeback was all the more notable considering how close he came to retiring after going 1-for-16 in the final four games of a series at Oklahoma City in early May.
The demand for first basemen in their mid-30s isn’t terribly great. Mancini missed his wife, Sara, and his daughter, Sadie, who was born last October. He also had the perspective of a cancer survivor. Mancini missed the shortened 2020 season after undergoing Stage 3 colon cancer surgery.
“Six years ago, I wasn’t sure how long I was going to live, what my life would look like, if I’d ever have kids,” he said. “Having my daughter has changed my perspective so much. In my mind, I’d been waiting my whole life to have a baby, and I’m here playing baseball, away from them most of the time. It hurt.”
His hope was all but gone.
After sitting out 2024, Mancini returned to pro ball last season, signing a minor-league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks just before spring training. He opted out on June 1, thinking he might get a major-league offer. None came.
He took another shot this season, reuniting with his longtime friend, Angels hitting coach Brady Anderson, by signing a minor-league deal with the club. At some point after the series in Oklahoma City, he approached the Angels’ Triple-A hitting coach, Alonzo Powell, and said, “If you have anything for me, I’m willing to do whatever, but I’ve got about one adjustment left in me.”
Powell suggested that Mancini stop laying his bat on his shoulder in his setup and elevate his hands to get in a more ready position. The adjustment took. Mancini came around. In his final 23 games with the Angels’ Salt Lake City affiliate, following the series in Oklahoma City, he batted .306 with a .392 on-base percentage and four home runs.
Still, he left Anderson a lengthy voice text on May 21, before he got truly hot, informing his mentor he was “pretty strongly” considering retiring.
“I wanted to give Brady a bit of a forewarning,” Mancini said. “He got me back into the game. I felt I owed it to him so he wouldn’t be shocked.”
Anderson pushed back.
“My message conveyed my beliefs about life and how one should approach it,” Anderson said. “You have your whole life ahead of you after baseball. There are only a few chances to compete against the best in the world, and that unique opportunity disappears once you retire. It’s something truly valuable, worth fighting for until the very end.”
Once again, Mancini kept going. He might have remained at Triple A if not for a wave of injuries to several players ahead of him on the Angels’ organizational depth chart. But there he was in Anaheim on Monday night, going 3-for-4 with Sara present in what felt like his second major-league debut. On Tuesday, he went 0-for-2 with a sacrifice fly.
“There was just something in there that just felt unfinished,” Mancini said. “I can’t even explain it. I kept thinking about it. When it was time to maybe call it or retire, something in me couldn’t do it.
“I sought a lot of people out, asked for a lot of advice. I talked to my Triple-A manager, Jeff Gardner, last year a lot when I was in Reno. He said, ‘Trust me, you’re going to know when you’re done.’
“I never had that moment necessarily. That was kind of the common theme of people who played. I tried to listen to them. I kept going. And kind of when the clock was at 11:59, I got the call.”
How long Mancini’s latest comeback will last is an open question, but at least he postponed midnight yet again.
“It’s a sport where you really never know where to expect,” Mancini said. “And the game, if you’re not done with it, it brings you back.”